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Election Problem Log - 2004 to 2009
Check out our other problem logs!
VotersUnite! began this problem log with the November 2004 election. It continued its compilation of problems reported in the media by adding news stories about subsequent elections, through 2009. See also: Failures by vendor and Failures by state.
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Date Problem Type State
Vendor
Description
6/22/2008 Canvass anomalies NM ES&S Cibola County. 182 ballots were missing from the primary election in two precincts. The State Board of Elections appears to be poised to certify the election anyway. Story Archive
12/19/2004 Deceptive practices NM Evidence of false voter drives, disinformation phone calls and fliers that sought to selectively remove minority voters from rolls and prevent them from voting. Several instances in New Mexico of such groups targeting Hispanic and other voters for voter registration, only for the voters to find that there is no record of their registration on election day. There are also general complaints throughout Bernalillo County of last minute precinct relocation that appear to have targeted poor and minority voters. Study
11/5/2006 Deceptive practices NM State Republican Party calls voters and tells them of incorrect polling place changes. Story
11/1/2006 E-pollbook NM Across the state. The computer system used to verify voter registrations at early voting sites across the state malfunctioned, causing major problems and long lines. Story Archive
11/9/2004 Fraud NM New Mexico State Police are investigating allegations of voter fraud ? including one instance in which an as-of-yet unnamed woman is being connected with up to 200 bogus ballots. Story
11/10/2004 Fraud NM A Republican presiding judge in one particular precinct was in charge of several hundred bad ballots. The problem, County Clerk Mary Herrera said, was that the bad ballots, with affidavits inside, were largely Democrats. The good ones were for Republican voters."It made us kind of sick," Herrera said. "It was too obvious. Story Archive
10/22/2004 Machine malfunction NM Sequoia Bernalillo and Sandoval Counties. Votes change to the wrong candidate on the Sequoia touch screen. Both Republicans and Democrats had presidential votes changed, as well as other choices. Story Archive
10/26/2004 Machine malfunction NM Sequoia Sandoval County problems escalate. Sequoia machines switch votes, won't register votes unless certain other races are voted, and switch straight party votes to another party. A check of the early voting site Friday morning found that problems were likely due to an "inconsistent stream of electricity," to some of the voting machines. Story Archive
11/2/2004 Machine malfunction NM Sequoia New Mexico Republicans complained at Bush-Cheney headquarters in Albuquerque that Sandoval County e-voting machines switched their Bush votes to Kerry. One Republican candidate for judge found he couldn't vote for himself at first. Story Archive
10/31/2005 Machine malfunction NM Sequoia Dona Ana County. Ballot programming error caused the City Clerk Shirley Clark to decide not to use the voting machines in this election. (VotersUnite contacted the county and discovered that Sequoia Voting Systems did the programming for Edge voting machines.) Story Archive
11/3/2006 Machine malfunction NM McKinley County. Ballot printer at the early voting site printed one side of the ballot upside down, slowed down, then stopped. "According to Palochak, the county's Elections Bureau director, the problem lay with the electronic server in Santa Fe feeding the early voting centers across the state their voter data. The machines started slowing down around 2 p.m., he said, and were back to business as usual by 2:45." Story Archive
3/21/2008 Machine malfunction NM ESS New Mexico. Problem-prone memory cards used in voting machines across New Mexico are being recalled to make certain they're working properly in preparation for the June primary election. The cards hold ballot information and are necessary for vote tabulators to operate. A number of county clerks have reported card failures and they have been forced to use backup cards to keep voting machines in service during elections. Story Archive
6/4/2008 Machine malfunction NM ESS Curry County. After discovering suspect results, election officials know there is a problem in the tabulation software, but they don't know what it is. Software technicians will take the device that reads memory cards back to their company to evaluate. Story Archive

Update: A software glitch, [County Election Manager Coni Jo ] Lyman said, caused precinct totals in an early voting location to be counted more than once. The problem with a memory card used to store results was difficult to identify, Lyman said, because not every precinct total doubled. “One of the early voting locations, it has put sporadic precincts in twice,” Lyman said. “It would accept results, but said it didn’t scan. You would re-scan, and it would accept that too.” Story2 Archive2

10/26/2004 Malfeasance NM Bernalillo County. County Clerk Mary Herrera admits that phantom votes have been a problem ever since they installed new tally software two years ago. In one case, nearly four thousand phantom votes were added to just one race. She is preparing for phantom votes in this election, too. SoS Rebecca Vigil-Giron was notified of the emergency several elections ago and has done nothing to fix the problem. Story Archive Video
12/24/2004 Malfeasance NM Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron failed to find -- and then denied the existence of -- 2,087 phantom votes in the certified results of the presidential election in New Mexico. Story Archive

To view the phantom-vote example cited in the story, go to the Bernalillo canvass report on the SoS website. Look on page 41 to see the 318 absentee votes for president in Precinct 512. Look in the last column on page 69 to see the number of absentee ballots -- 166. 158 more votes than ballots cast means 158 phantom votes. The report cited in the story is here.

2/7/2008 Malfeasance NM The Democratic primary, run by the Democratic party, was an organizational disaster. Polls opened at noon, and multiple precincts were combined into single polling places, and the polls were severely understaffed -- all causing extremely long lines. Many voters left when they realized the wait time would be hours. In Rio Rancho County, all 37 precincts were combined into one polling place. Story Archive Story2
2/7/2008 Malfeasance NM Rio Arriba County. "Roughly half the votes from Rio Arriba County spent the night in the privacy of the home or homes of one or more election officials in boxes those officials may have had the ability to open." Those ballots still haven’t been counted, but they have been retrieved by the state party. Story Archive
10/30/2004 Poor design NM Cibola County. Early voters complain about the Sequoia AVC Edge electronic voting machines supplied by Ink Impressions. Checked by a police officer, it's clear that voters must touch the screen exactly right for the vote to register correctly. Story Archive
11/9/2004 Provisional ballots NM Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrerasays roughly 25 percent of the provisional ballots in Bernalillo County have been rejected as invalid. Story
11/10/2004 Provisional ballots NM A Republican presiding judge in one particular precinct was in charge of several hundred bad ballots. The problem, County Clerk Mary Herrera said, was that the bad ballots, with affidavits inside, were largely Democrats. The good ones were for Republican voters."It made us kind of sick," Herrera said. "It was too obvious. Story Archive
2/7/2008 Registration errors NM ESS High percentages of voters were forced to vote on provisional ballots due to severe flaws in the voter registration database used by the Democratic party (which ran the primary). 50% of the ballots were provisional in Mora County. At least 15% in San Miguel County. Questions remain about where the Democratic party got the voter lists, since it didn't get them from the county clerks. Story Archive

"With 183 of 184 of precincts reporting, Hillary Rodham Clinton held a lead of 1,092 votes — 67,921 votes compared to 66,829 for Barack Obama, according to preliminary results posted on the state Democratic Party's Web site." 17,000 provisional ballots remain to be counted. Story2 Archive2

6/3/2008 Registration errors NM ESS Problems with the state's computer system is hampering counties' as they verify voters and determine where the voters' polling places are located.-- Roosevelt, Cibola, Sandoval, and Lea Counties, in particular. However, Chaves and Santa Fe Counties, which have backups, are not affected. Story Archive
8/25/2004 Registration fraud NM Bernalillo County. Over 3,000 suspect registration forms. At least one 13-year old boy has received a registration card. Story
10/27/2008 Voter intimidation NM Lawsuits were filed today in U.S. Federal District Court, charging New Mexico Republicans with criminal violations of the U.S. Voting Rights Act. The lawsuits stem from a series of intimidation attempts on new, minority voters in Albuquerque. Story Archive
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