Cibola voting precincts changing

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Cibola County will have more precincts during elections, but fewer polling locations, beginning with the primary election in June, said George Trujillo, the county’s elections department coordinator.

Trujillo said in order to get more accurate information about how many voters were casting their votes in precincts, the county needed to get rid of “subprecincts,” and make several new whole precincts.

“There was no one here that was around when the subprecincts were made, so I had to call other counties and the Secretary of State’s Office,” Trujillo said.

The Secretary of State’s solution for the county, to be able to break down voting information for reporting purposes, was to delete the subprecincts, he said.

That means there will be 25 precincts in Cibola County as of next year, but three fewer polling locations because each precinct will have only one poll.

It also means the county will have less precinct officers because each polling location requires at least four people. There are several within the county that require an interpreter because those precincts are on reservations, so those boards require five people, Trujillo said.

The commissioners approved a resolution Monday night at its meeting and now the new precinct plan goes to the Secretary of State’s Office. Trujillo said he hopes to have final approval from the state by the end of October.

“Once approved by the state, we will send out new voter cards telling each voter where to vote. Those will be mailed in January or February (2008),” he said.

When a precinct boundary changes, or polling locations are changed, the state requires a new voter registration card showing the name and general information about the voter and what precinct and what polling location on it to be sent to the voter.

Precinct changes
Precincts affected by the resolution, if approved by the state, include the Pueblo of Laguna, which will be broken into six new, separate precincts instead of having several sub-precincts. The new precincts will be the villages and the surrounding areas of: 20, Laguna; 21, Mesita; 22, Paguate; 23, Encinal; 24, Paraje; and 25, Seama.
Seboyeta will become its own precinct. Cubero will be merged into Precinct 18, and Lobo Canyon Fire Department and Mt. Taylor will be precinct 19.

Bluewater Village will stay Precinct 4, but Murray Acres, which was Precinct 4B, will be merged into 4.

The east side of Milan will be combined into Precinct 14.
Ramah Chapter House will stay Precinct 5, but Fence Lake will now become Precinct 1.

Truman Fire Department, will be combined into Precinct 12 with The Way, The Truth and The Life Ministries, which is where the polling location will be located.

The three polling locations that will be eliminated will be Truman Fire Department in Grants, one of the two locations at FEBCO Fire Department in Milan and Lobo Canyon Fire Department.

In order to vote in the Grants and Milan city and village elections respectively, residents must register to vote at least 28 days prior to the date of the elections, which the city and village have not yet set, Trujillo said.

Currently, there are 14,634 registered voters in Cibola County.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.