Shenanigans

We're starting to get some reports of voting shenanigans. It seems that voters who have already requested an absentee ballot are turning up at voting sites in large numbers and are asking to vote. So far there's no problem.

The law provides that voters who have requested an absentee ballot may vote as long as they sign an affidavit declaring that they had not previously voted absentee. Instead of receiving a regular ballot those voters are supposed to receive a provisional ballot. It's then up to the clerk to verify whether or not those voters had already voted absentee. If their absentee vote had been received, the provisional ballot would be discarded.

The problem is that early voting sites are allowing these "absentee" voters to cast their vote on a regular ballot, thereby making it impossible to remove an illegally cast vote. Our Eyes tell us that the Presiding Judges had been instructed by the County Clerk to handle these voters using regular ballots and that even though they agreed that the state statute directed otherwise, they had no choice but to continue until they received instructions from the clerk's office.

We don't know whether this is some coordinated effort to poison the voter well, but Presiding Judges shouldn't need the clerk's approval to follow the law. We'd remind anyone thinking of stealing someone else's vote by voting more than once that it's a felony to vote multiple times.

Special O-ccommodations

Looks like Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse-Oliver is getting ready to make some special accommodations for the Anointed One's Saturday rally. Our Eyes tell us that the clerk plans to increase the size of the early voting site from 25 booths to 70 booths to allow for the Obama acolytes to cast their votes. In addition, the clerk plans to expand the hours from the 10am to 6pm specified by state law to 9am to 8am - coincidentally overlapping the start of the Obama rally.

Long lines have been a problem this year at a number of early voting sites including the UNM site.

The University of New Mexico and the Northeast Heights locations — especially Integrity Plaza on Wyoming and Market Center on Lomas — have been the busiest. The South Valley and Downtown locations have been the lightest.

-Albuquerque Journal (Subscription)

Understand we want everyone to have an opportunity to vote... ONCE. What we're concerned about is what appears to be the special accommodations being made for one candidate for office over another. To date the County Clerk has made no attempt to expand voting sites around the city to handle this year's heavy turnout. However, when an Obama rally comes to UNM's Johnson Field presumably drawing with it a large crowd of The One Named O's supporters - the clerk expands the size and hours of operation at the last minute of a polling site that's next door to the rally.

From our understanding of the law, Toulouse-Oliver has the discretion to increase the size of a polling place as long as it is not moved. However, state law explicitly determines the times of operation.

NMSA 1-6-5.7(A) Early voting may be done at an alternate location from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday through the Saturday immediately prior to the election.

By law, Toulouse-Oliver cannot extend the hours - or for that matter change them in any way.

The peaceful transition of power from one elected official to another - from one party to another - requires the public's faith in the accuracy of the tabulation and their ability to cast a vote and have it counted. To that end, even the appearance of partiality poisons the public's faith that the outcome of an election is based on the collective will of the people.

There's no way that an objective person can look at the last minute changes being made by the clerk to one polling site and believe that these changes are not politically motivated. Consistency breeds confidence and Toulouse-Oliver's actions are anything but.

We suspect that there has been pressure brought to bear on Toulouse-Oliver to make these special accommodations. After all, she's a Democrat whose husband works for the Governor who just so happens to have endorsed Obama. However, voters expect a clerk to act in a consistently and without regard to their party affiliation.

In short... The Bernalillo County Clerk should not be making changes to the times, place, or size of polling places based on the appearance schedules of either one of the candidates for President or their campaign schedule. Making O-commodations undermines the integrity of the election process by poisoning the faith that voters have in the process - a faith that has taken nearly 250 years to build.

----- Update -----
Our Eyes tell us that the Republican Party of New Mexico has agreed to the extension of hours and the expansion in the UNM polling site as long as all of the early voting sites have similarly expanded hours.

First and most importantly, the RPNM does not have the authority to allow the county clerk to violate the law. And while they may be patting themselves on the back for cutting a good deal, most voters won't know about the expanded voting hours and therefore their "good deal" will be worth very little to them.

Folks, we have laws for a reason. It's unconscionable that the clerk and the RPNM are colluding to violate the law for what they both see as a benefit - real or not.