Will luck of the draw decide District 1?

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — City officials will be doing the recount for the northside council race at 1:30 p.m. Monday in the city council chambers. The recount is open to the public.

At the end, the city will know whether Mike Enfield, who has been sworn in as the new representative of the northside district, is the actual winner. Enfield defeated incumbent Bill Nechero by one vote, 183 to 182, in the March 10 election.

“Anything can happen (Monday),” said City Attorney R. David Pederson since there is a possibility of Nechero getting one more vote to make it a tie election, creating a unique situation in Gallup history.

If that happens, there will not be a runoff. Instead, the decision as to who will be the victor will be done by chance.

City Clerk Alfred Abeita said the two candidates would have to decide how they want the decision to be made — cutting a deck of cards with the person getting the highest card winning, flipping a coin or drawing lots out of a hat. Arm wrestling or some other sort of contest requiring skill or strength will not be allowed.

Abeita said state and city law requires that the proceedings be overseen by the city clerk and the county clerk or their representatives. Also required will be a district judge and District Court Judge Louis DePauli Jr. has agreed to be on hand.

Also required to be present under state law is all of the precinct officials who took part in the March 10 election. In fact, said Abeita, the law required that the notice to the precinct officials be done face to face instead of by mail or phone.

Pederson said it doesn’t make a lot of sense for the precinct officials to be present at the recount since they serve no official purpose for being there.

“It’s apparently something that is a holdover from the horse and buggy days and the state Legislature has never bothered to change the law, “ he said.

The city and county clerks as well as the district judge do serve a purpose since they will be required to make a decision on the spot if there is a question over any of the ballots.

Pederson said a recent state Supreme Court case spells out what has to be done if there is a ballot that is not filled in properly. For example, the voter, instead of filling out the oval next to a candidate’s name, put a check mark or some other mark.

It would then be the duty of the three elected officials “to determine the intent of the voter.”

Enfield and Nechero have a right to be at the recount or send their representatives, but they will have no say in how questionable ballots are handled. Pederson said if they feel that the three elected officials made a mistake and this cost them the election, they can appeal the decision to district court.

The recount of the two precincts in the northside district is not expected to take very long, but the absentee and early voting ballots will take more time since all of them have been lumped together and election officials will have to sort out the ones that were done for the northside district.

If the recount shows that Enfield won, nothing much will happen since he already has been sworn in and was even seated at the last council meeting. If Nechero gets enough votes to win, Abeita said the certification that Enfield received as the winner will be rescinded when the canvassing board meets on Tuesday and Nechero will be sworn in.