Still too close to call
Officials still counting provisional ballots

Voters arrived at the Gallup Fire Station at 1800 S. Second St., Tuesday afternoon to cast votes during the Democratic caucus. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — At 4 p.m. Wednesday, Mary Ann Armijo was still waiting for officials of the New Mexico Democratic Party to come and pick up the ballots cast Tuesday by county residents in the presidential caucus.

County Democratic officials had already turned in their voting numbers for the four polling places in McKinley County, but the ballot boxes also contained several hundred provisional ballots that had not been counted.

With Hillary Clinton only 1,000 votes ahead of Barack Obama statewide at that time, Gallup’s provisional ballots could have little impact on who won or lost the state.

The county had already gone heavily for Clinton, and local party officials were saying on Tuesday that they did not expect the provisional ballots to change that.

In fact, there’s a possibility that only a few of the 300 or so provisional ballots would actually make the count.

These are ballots that were cast by people whose name did not appear on the official voter registration list turned over to the county Democratic Party by the county’s election bureau.

There’s also a question of just how long it will take to get these and some 16,500 provisional ballots that were cast statewide counted.

Armijo said it will be up to the state Democratic Party to do the processing of the provisional ballots.

The local Democratic Party did release figures for voting that was done in the Crownpoint precinct on Tuesday.
The unofficial tally shows Clinton with 229 votes to 163 for Obama, 23 for Gov. Bill Richardson and 10 for John Edwards. Both Richardson and Edwards have dropped out of the race.

Crownpoint also had 82 provisional ballots.

Even though all four precincts in McKinley County — Gallup, Crownpoint, Twin Lakes and Zuni — reported more people showing up than they expected, no one knows just how many people decided not to go through the hassle of voting in Gallup, where long lines and lack of parking were commonplace throughout the day. It was reported that Twin Lakes ran out of ballots.

County Commissioner Dave Dallago said he spent an hour finding a parking space and waiting in line Tuesday afternoon before he had to give up because of other commitments. Since the county commission held a meeting Tuesday night, he couldn’t get back to the voting site — the Southside Fire Station — before the 7 p.m. deadline.

In Albuquerque, Democrats are preparing to examine about 17,000 provisional ballots that will determine a winner in New Mexico’s tightly contested presidential caucus, as party officials come under sharp criticism for how they managed the troubled election.

Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson says he’s “deeply disturbed” by problems and long lines at caucus sites, where volunteer workers were overwhelmed by greater-than-expected turnout.

“As this very close election shows, every vote is important and every vote must count. Anything less is unacceptable. In addition, the delay in results was extremely disappointing,” Richardson said Wednesday. “I have expressed my frustration to Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon.”

Colon said he had not met with nor talked to Richardson.
New Mexico is the last of 22 states that held Democratic primaries and caucuses Tuesday to report a winner.

With 183 of 184 of precincts reporting late Wednesday, Clinton held a lead of 1,092 votes — 67,921 votes compared with 66,829 for Obama, according to preliminary results posted on the New Mexico Democrats Web site.

When the provisional count is done, it may mean only a gain of a few delegates for the winning candidate. Clinton and Obama are vying for 26 of New Mexico’s 38 delegates to the Democratic Convention. Twelve so-called super delegates are not bound by caucus results.

The caucus, which was run by the state’s Democratic Party, was riddled with troubles — with reports coming from across the state on of exasperated voters waiting in lines for up to three hours and polling sites running short of ballots.

Mara Lee, state director for the Clinton campaign, said hundreds of people had called a campaign hotline to voice concerns about the caucus. Lee said the state party was unprepared.

“What my concern is mostly that the party system broke down yesterday and I don’t want New Mexicans to be punished,” Lee said.

Colon took responsibility for the problems. “We absolutely miscalculated and I apologize,” Colon said. “It’s a tragedy when folks are not afforded the opportunity to vote.”