Toulouse Oliver said the man, who supported Republican candidates, was initially reported for campaigning within 100 feet of a polling location; a troubleshooter from the county was sent out and measured the distance.

At last report, the situation had been diffused by Albuquerque Public Schools police officers.

This comes hours after The Independent reported on Republican poll challengers being warned by the Doña Ana County clerk’s office. It is unclear if the incidents are related.

NMPolitics.net reported:

At precinct 25, a poll challenger was picking up poll workers’ materials and “throwing them down on the table” while being disruptive, Jimenez said. And at precinct 69, he said a poll challenger was “yelling in the polling place” and accusing the presiding judge of tampering with an absentee ballot when the judge was simply sealing the ballot according to procedure.

“There have been incidents at six precincts,” Jimenez said. “At three locations, gentlemen were trying to handle voters’ ballots. At one, he was hovering by the scanner machine and took ballots, and then he — the challenger — placed ballots into the scanner for the voters. …At one location, Tom Baugh Elementary, a challenger was attempting to assist voters. Challengers are not allowed to act as poll workers like that.”

At other precincts, poll challenger repeatedly demanded that poll workers require photo identification from voters, Jimenez said.

“They were disruptive and extremely rude,” Jimenez said. “They told poll workers that they had to take ID from voters.”

“We called the Republican Party (vice) chairman Mark Vandyke and warned them,” Jimenez said. “We said if it happens again, we’ll remove the challengers involved.”

Doña Ana County Republican Party officials did not immediately return The Independent’s phone call for comment. N.M. Republican Party officials referred The Independent to the Doña Ana County Republican Party.

“It’s been relatively smooth otherwise,” Jimenez said. “I hope it stays that way.”

“Just isolated events so far — nothing big,” Allen said. “At El Dorado Elementary in Santa Fe, one gentleman, a poll official, was asking everybody for identification. That’s been corrected.”

Separately, at Bellaire Elementary School (Bernalillo County Precinct 444), voters had to use provisional ballots until a precinct judge arrived, Allen reported. The precinct judge was late because of car trouble. Allen did not know the number of voters who had to cast provisional ballots at that voting location.

Voters who encounter trouble at the polls should call the Count Every Vote NM hotline at 866-687-8683, Allen said.

Tea party activists are fanning out across the U.S. to join Republican and Democratic volunteers in monitoring the polls against cases voter fraud.

The allegations reflect concerns expressed in a recent Brennan Center for Justice report, suggesting that efforts to counter the rare issue of voter fraud may actually discourage legitimate voters from casting their ballots.

The DOJ is also reportedly investigating allegations of voter harassment by aggressive tea party “ballot security” or anti-voter fraud poll watchers who have been “hovering over” voters, disrupting lines of voters and arguing with election officials.

Harris County, the largest county in Texas, is home to the tea party-aligned King Street Patriots, whose “True the Vote” videos on YouTube have emphasized concerns that the election could be “stolen” by the “radical liberals” through voter fraud.

The Texas Independent has been covering this issue in depth. Here are some links to their coverage:

Coverage of the King Street Patriots: http://www.americanindependent.com/tag/king-street-patriots

The Texas Independent was the first to report DOJ involvement in Houston on Oct. 19:

http://www.americanindependent.com/150033/texas-democrats-department-of-justice-investigating-reported-voter-intimidation-in-houston

And the first to report DOJ was sending poll watchers to Houston yesterday Nov. 1:

http://www.americanindependent.com/153253/texas-democrats-ksptrue-the-vote-trained-poll-watchers-in-travis-county

Here’s the latest story on Texas poll watcher watching:

http://www.americanindependent.com/153644/tx-watchers-monitors-and-observers-out-in-force-during-election-day

“The voters who stood up and challenged this intimidation sent a strong message to anybody who is inclined to threaten or intimidate voters during an election,” Nina Perales, the lead attorney for MALDEF, told the Independent today.

On October 27, 2008, MALDEF had filed a federal lawsuit against Pat Rogers, an attorney for the Republican Party of New Mexico and GOP national committeeman, and Al Romero, a private investigator hired by Romero, on behalf of two elderly Hispanic women who claimed the men had intimidated them.

Rogers told the AP the lawsuit was frivolous and said of MALDEF, “They obtained the publicity that they desired.” 

Perales said that she was disappointed that the court didn’t get the chance to rule on the merits of the case, but she added, “It is important to send a message so that the next time an election comes around, people know that this won’t be tolerated.”

The suit stemmed from an Oct. 16 press conference at which former state Rep. Justine Fox-Young announced “We are presenting undeniable proof that there was voter fraud in the June election,” and then passed out packets of information that included incompletely redacted copies of voter registration cards, including those of Dora Escobedo and Lydia Olivarez, the two plaintiffs in the MALDEF suit.

One week later, as NMI reported, Romero visited the homes of several newly registered voters, including Escobedo and Olivarez.

According to the complaint, Escobedo, who became a naturalized citizen in 2007 and voted for the first time in the June 2008 primary election, said Romero demanded to see her identification, accused her of being an illegal alien and threatened to call immigration authorities to report her.

“I have not violated any law and Mr. Romero has not violated any law,” Rogers said of the suit in late October, adding, “The lawsuit contains serious accusations that have no basis in law or fact. The suit is filed and advertised before the upcoming election for obvious purposes.”

A field director in ACORN’s voter registration program, Mouath B. Baesho, wrote the e-mail and said ACORN registered 1.3 million citizens around the nation to vote this year. That number is probably inflated. Baesho wrote about Jenais Griego, a 67-year-old newly naturalized citizen, from Albuquerque.

“In April, I helped her fill out a voter registration application — right after the ceremony where she was sworn in as a U.S. citizen,” Baesho wrote. “I’ll never forget the look of pride on her face as she finished filling out the form, ready to participate fully in our democracy.”

Then Baesho turned to the allegations of illegal votes cast by those registered by ACORN by the New Mexico Republican Party. Baesho said ACORN came “under fire by partisan operatives” who attempted to stop voters from voting by voter intimidation.

This included visits to Griego’s house by a private investigator who attempted to find improprieties in Griego’s voter registration. The private investigators were hired by Pat Rogers — a prominent New Mexico Republican lawyer — to research a possible lawsuit against ACORN.

The e-mail quoted Griego from a press conference.

“Nobody can scare me out of voting. Nobody,” Jenais Griego said. “It even makes me want to vote more.”

Then, Baesho asked for “a tax-deductible gift” of “$50, $100, or $500 so we can continue to protect voter rights in low-income communities in 2009 and beyond.”

        Photo by John Vigil.

US District Judge William P. Johnson declined today to issue a restraining order against GOP attorney Pat Rogers and private investigator Al Romero, but the voter intimidation case continues.

“I think that Mr. Rogers learned a lesson. He has learned that voter intimidation by him will result in a swift legal reaction. The swift response in court means he can’t undertake these activities without exposure. He’s going to be forced to account for his activities in a court of law,” said Nina Perales, MALDEF Southwest regional counsel and lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

“We did accomplish our important goals in the hearing because Mr. Romero testified on the stand that he would not go back to Ms. Escobedo’s house even if Mr. Rogers asked him to do it, based on the evidence that he heard,” Perales said.

Calls to Mr. Rogers and a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of New Mexico were not immediately returned.

At the hearing last night, MALDEF learned that the ballot of one of the plaintiffs, Lydia Olivarez, had been received, opened and counted without challenge. The Bernalillo County Clerk had not yet received the ballot of the other plaintiff, Dora Escobedo. She will be able to vote today with a provisional ballot, according to the clerk’s office.

Rogers said under oath that he had no immediate plans to challenge Escobedo’s vote, Perales said.

Calls to Mr. Rogers and a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of New Mexico were not immediately returned.

On Oct. 27, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) filed a federal lawsuit against Rogers and Romero in what it said was an attempt to “block threats and intimidation of eligible Latino voters in the days leading up to the November 4, 2008 General Election.”

The suit still asks the court to “declare that defendants violated plaintiff’s rights secured by the Voting Rights Act,” and prevent the defendants from “undertaking activities which are designed to intimidate, threaten or coerce voters concerning their right to vote in an election…”

This post has been corrected. An earlier version misidentified the judge in the case. Thanks, Dan!

First, Rogers says he hired Romero to investigate suspect voter registrations because he was considering a lawsuit against ACORN, the community organizing group that registered 80,000 voters in New Mexico this year.

(Rogers’ distrust of ACORN is not new. In 2004, Rogers pushed US Attorney David Iglesias to pursue charges of voter registration fraud against ACORN; when he refused, Rogers and others pressured officials in the White House and Department of Justice to fire Iglesias. Which they did. Which may result in criminal charges.)

Second, under examination in court, plaintiff Dora Ecobedo admitted that she had already voted by mail by the time Romero showed up at her doorstep questioning her eligibility to vote. That appeared to make a dent in MALDEF’s argument that a restraining order was needed to protect her right to vote.

Third, Rogers says he hired Romero on behalf of his client, New Mexico Victory 08, part of the Republican Party of New Mexico.

Fourth: according to a response filed with the court Sunday, Romero was not the first private investigator hired by Rogers to investigate ACORN. It was the first private investigator (who was not named) who prepared a list of 10 suspect voters, including plaintiffs in the MALDEF suit Dora Escobedo and Lydia Olivarez, that was distributed to the media at an Oct. 16 press conference held by NM State Rep. Justine Fox Young.

Another three of the 10 people on that suspect-voter list are now plaintiffs in a different voter intimidation lawsuit against Al Romero and NM State Rep. Justine Fox-Young, filed by the ACLU.

A continuation of yesterday’s hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. today. We’ll have an update on that ASAP.

This story has been corrected. An earlier version included an error in the judge’s name.

Vote caging is a technique involving one person, group or political party that uses returned mail, home foreclosure lists, Social Security databases or other methods to identify groups of voters and prevent them from voting.

The recruiter is Todd Stefan from SETEC Investigations, a California security company. “I was told to see if there were some individuals, people with investigative experience, IT [information technology] experience… to advise attorneys and make sure that everything goes smoothly,” Stefan told the Independent in a phone interview Friday.

Stefan declined to say whether he was recruiting on behalf of RNC, saying, “I don’t fully know who’s involved. This is something that, I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit skittish about.” Stefan then said he knew that there was concern in New Mexico that private investigators were being used in election issues.

“We are very troubled to hear this information and we think it raises serious questions about programs that the RNC is running,” said Jenny Backus of the Obama campaign.

A call to the Republican National Committee was not returned; a spokeswoman from the Republican Party of New Mexico would not comment on the charges.

Two other private investigators contacted by the Independent said they had not received calls similar to the one O’Niell got, asking for help on Election Day.

“We wouldn’t even take that case if they asked us,” said one P.I., a former law enforcement officer who has been a private investigator for six years, but like most NMI contacted didn’t want his name disclosed. “There’s a wide spectrum of stuff that investigators can do, but that’s nothing we would do. Whoever gets elected gets elected,” he said.

Another, a retired APD officer who’s been a private investigator for 14 years, said he’d never been asked to do that kind of work. “I’m a registered independent and I think any investigator should be independent if he’s doing his job,” he said.

Vote challengers from each party will be present in many precincts on election day. In New Mexico, challengers may challenge voters if they are not legally registered, their names are on the “purged” list, they are listed as having received absentee ballots or if they are not “qualified” electors. A qualified elector is someone who is not eligible to vote in New Mexico because, for example, he or she is not a U.S. citizen.

O’Niell said he believes he was contacted because his Web site touts his more than 20 years of experience as a federal law enforcement agent.

Law enforcement has increasingly been used in voter suppression efforts according to Project Vote, an organization that worked with ACLU to bring a lawsuit against GOP attorney Pat Rogers and private investigator Al Romero here this week. According to a press release from Project Vote on Friday:

“Partisan forces have manufactured hysteria around the myth of ‘voter fraud’ that they have used to help goad law-enforcement into intimidation and politically motivated investigations into eligible voters. As the election approaches, Project Vote and other voting rights organizations are seeing law enforcement officials inserting themselves into election administration, and partisan pressure to coerce law enforcement agents into overreaching investigations into the eligibility of legal voters.”

The recent actions of GOP state Rep. Justine Fox-Young, Rogers and Romero, and the resulting lawsuits by ACLU and MALDEF, figure prominently in Project Vote’s allegations.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico recently filed a lawsuit against Fox-Young, saying she released confidential information while making claims of vote fraud. MALDEF filed a lawsuit against Rogers and Romero, accusing the two men of trying to intimidate voters.

Rogers has said he has done nothing wrong, while Fox-Young has called the lawsuits desperate.