A Guide to Irregularities in the 2004 New Mexico General Election Analysis by Robert Glenn Plotner In reviewing the November 2004 General Election in New Mexico, it is important to realize that most election officials are forthright and are as concerned about possible voting irregularities as the wider political community. There are also some technological issues of which officials may not be aware, and there are unfortunately certain localities where definite trends of voter intimidation and disenfranchisement occurred. This report focuses on the potential problem areas, counties, and technologies, drawing both from patterns of first-hand incident reports and from statistical analysis of official election data. Indeed, it is in the convergence of these two collection methods that we find the most supportive case for reassessing the election and assuring that democracy’s vital foundation, each citizen’s vote, is counted and secured. Background of IncidentsA pattern of incidents and statistical anomalies suggest that the minority vote was undermined not only at the polls through defective and possibly tampered voting equipment but also in turnout by means of disenfranchisement by outside partisan interests, precinct relocation and possibly by registration/absentee exclusion. There is evidence of false voter drives, disinformation phone calls and fliers that sought to selectively remove minority voters from rolls and prevent them from voting. There are 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 [EIRS case #50325, 59172, 59226, 59173, 59276, 59160, 44016, 59282, 48140, 59316, 59257, 59205]. One incident report reads “This is a general complaint about something that happened all day at this polling place. A number of Hispanic voters said they registered in voter drive efforts and never got a registration card… the concern is that there were double-digit number of these people. Did someone(s) register folks and deliberately not turn in the forms?” Those voters were then forced to fill out provisional ballots that likely were not verified as legitimate. There are also numerous instances of such target voters receiving disinformation phone calls directing them to the wrong polling locations, wrong date to vote, etc. [#46846, 47472, 59643, 59143, 59164, 59482, 34574, 59281, 59290]. A typical incident report reads “Voter received automated message from a group identifying itself as ‘877-Fair-Vote’, part of the Republican National committee, encouraging him to vote for Bush but giving him the incorrect voting precinct information.” Another reads “Caller received two calls over the weekend and another this afternoon providing incorrect polling place. This afternoon's call said it was from Nancy at Bush/Cheney HQ in Albuquerque and paid for by the Republican National Committee, urging her to vote, and giving the location for a school that has never been a polling place. Caller is a registered Democrat. Caller feels she was targeting [sic] because she is a Democrat.” There are several instances in the EIRS incidents of poor and minority target voters having been signed up for absentee ballots without their knowledge and then discovering on election day that there is a mysterious record of them already having voted by absentee [#59324, 40688, 59147, 59533, 59525, 59331, 59269, 33842, 49037]. Again, a provisional ballot was given which more than likely would not be counted. Another absentee type fraud saw groups illegally collecting ballots door to door that were of course never turned in [#59587]. There are also general complaints throughout Bernalillo County of last minute precinct relocation that appear to have targeted poor and minority voters [#45173, 59347, 59275, 59266, 59243, 59350, 59524, 59317, 59496, 59320, 33344, 59333, 59279]. The perception is that such changes were made to confuse, misdirect, and inconvenience such voters. “Apparent pattern of change of voting place w/o notice of brown-skinned/first time voters” reads one incident report. There are numerous reports of voters waiting in line at their presumed precinct only to find that the precincts have been shuffled. Often, instead of directing them to the correct precinct, election officials simply issued the voter a provisional ballot [#59262, 42131, 59354, 35619, 59420] that is less likely to have been counted. There are instances where precinct judges demanded that EP (Election Protection) volunteers cease in directing such misdirected voters to their correct precincts [#59652]. Other judges and RNC challengers were also openly hostile to EP volunteers and attempted to remove them from the polling locations sometimes by threat of arrest [#59252, 49600, 46919, 39332, 59636, 59277, 43547, 59163]. Another judge was reported to have selectively removed campaign signs from the premises while repositioning others [#41922] while some poll workers adorned their children with Bush paraphernalia [#42148] and others parked their Right Wing bumper sticker-laden cars directly in front of the precinct entrance [#35876]. Other judges reported that they were ordered by the Bernalillo county clerk to selectively require ID of first time voters [#59410, 37539]. More incidents include late openings [#59574, 34875], early closings by the County Clerk's office [#59212, 59321], turning off parking lights at night [#59678], removing "Vote Here" signs by poll workers [#59229], and other incidents of partisan intimidation [#39539, 50181]. There are several recorded instances in Bernalillo of newly registered voters in the same household being given different precincts [#59311, 59611, 27836]. Others report that one family member received their registration card while the other member didn't receive their registration although both registered at the same time, some at the county clerk's office [#59166, 59252, 43703, 59355, 27605]. Some precincts ran out of provisional ballots and began to turn voters away [#36629, 59256, 32118]. Still another incident case reports that one precinct was split in half with half the voters allowed to vote on machine, and the other half were given provisional ballots [#59272]. With this level of hindrance that seems focused in Bernalillo, Dona Ana, and Rio Arriba counties is it any wonder that the precincts with the strongest Kerry support also had the worst turnout? Indeed, it is more than a trend – it is an inverse correlation of support to turnout while Bush precincts exhibit precisely the opposite effect.
A more subtle relationship is to be found in the under-vote percentages represented in yellow usually as a negative number. Again, there is a direct correlation of high under-votes to strong Kerry support while under-votes dramatically decrease with strong Bush support. A question remains as to whether the higher under-votes represent a lower literacy rate or whether they are in fact purposely contrived. Evidence to support the latter is that op-scan counties representing 1/3 of New Mexico’s counties have a much lower under-vote percentage than do any of the electronic voting counties. THE UNDERVOTE EFFECT IN ELECTRONIC VOTING New Mexico’s certified election results record a total of 18,997 under-votes for the Presidential contest. Of these, 1850 derived from optical scan counties during any faze of the election including all absentee voting and a whopping 17,147 came from all forms of DRE and touchscreen voting. The percentage is just as dramatic with the op-scan voting accounting for an under-vote percentage of just 0.64% while the e-voting returned an under-vote of 3.54%.
The dramatic and unacceptable difference is evidence that more is going on with the technology than just a reference of the literacy rate. DRE’s are marketed as more accurate and boast of improved under-vote counts. Additionally, some counties provide a compelling contrast of technology used in both early voting and on election day and infer that the high under-vote count was with few exceptions confined specifically to election day. For instance, using the Sequoia’s AVC Edge, Torrance County cast 1023 early vote ballots of which just 9 did not return a vote for President, an under-vote percentage of 0.88% and yet the same system in the same county on election day saw 190 of the 4121 ballots cast missing votes for President, an unexplained rise to 4.61%. Op-scan counties would not exhibit such a small under-vote discrepancy as compared to e-voting counties if it simply a matter of local literacy issues or of voters simply choosing not to vote for president. There is strongly suggestive evidence for instance that Native American precincts, especially from reservations saw the greatest under-vote disparity and the lowest turnout. One might subscribe those statistics to any number of factors until one reads incident reports like these: “016872 10/28/04, 3:41 PM PST Voter Intimidation; Non-English lang. assistance problem; Provisional ballot problem Thoreau Fire Station, Crown Pointe , McKinley County, New Mexico Provisional Ballots were not available at the polling site. The poll workers who were identified as White, were often rude to the Navajo Native American people who went to vote. The voter was not alone, she was with a group of students from Crown Pointe NM and the students who are voters as well were not treated with respect by the poll workers. The poll workers took the voters ballot and placed it behind a computer and not in a box. The polling place workers say that the reason why they had no provisional ballots was because no one was at the voting site to pick up the ballots when they were delivered. The polling site has no Navajo interpreters to help the Native non-English speakers vote and the poll workers were also being rude to the Native Navajo.” “49048 Los Alamos Pinon Elementary School Nov. 2, 2004 at approximately 3:45pm 2004-11-02 17:37:35 PST …Voter realized after entering her vote on computer screen that confirmation was required. Previous voter had not confirmed and had vote overwritten. Received indifferent response from election officials to report of overwriting and urging of information and education for large number of Native American voters unfamiliar with computer technology.” A question asserts itself regarding Native American precincts as to how much poll workers and election officials were negligent and quietly complicit in allowing overwriting and disenfranchisement to take place. To understand that there is a technological (rather than a literacy gap) with some voters and to willfully choose not to act on behalf of the citizen is in itself an act to defraud. Willful obstruction based on unfamiliarity with technology targets not only Native American but also non-English, lower income voters, and senior citizens as well. Indeed, the case can be made with small, minority, low-income communities like Guadalupe County with a per capita income of under $15,000 and an 81% Hispanic majority who under-voted at rates of 0.51% in early voting and 0.33% in absentee voting, both via pen and paper optical scan and yet had an inexplicable increase to a 6.09% under-vote on election day via DRE. This is not an issue of literacy as the early and absentee under-vote in Guadalupe was at or better than the state average; it is a matter of 1) familiarity with technology 2) complicity among poll workers in certain precincts to prevent understanding and allow under-votes and overwriting to occur and 3) malicious machinery. The case for malicious, possibly rigged DRE’s once again returns to the incident reports. It may be as simple as locating problem machines in poorer and minority communities, or it quite possibly may involve programmed code. The are even incident reports in the EIRS database of voters reporting that vote selection areas were misaligned over some candidates so that touching the screen over an appropriate box would not record a vote and required one to press one’s finger to the side in order for the selection to take. “059426 12/02/04, 8:54 AM PST Machine problem Emerson Elementary (23), Bernalillo County, New Mexico Voter was not able to mark preference by touching area instructed by the machine (had to touch screen about 1/2 inch away to properly mark).” There are many EIRS incident reports of electronic voting machines switching votes with a high preference for changing votes from Kerry to Bush or from Kerry to a third party candidate; not selecting a presidential candidate when a straight party ticket was selected (an under-vote); and de-selecting the results of one race when another race was voted. In the instances it was found, it took awareness and diligence on the part of the voter in order to correct the selections. Incident reports record voters being concerned that older or inexperienced voters may not discern the switches and know to correct them. Here are some, but not all, of the electronic voting machine incident complaints (ref. https://voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapNation) (note that spelling errors are in the original incident reports): 033853 11/02/04, 8:09 AM PST Machine problem Longfellow Elelemntary School -- Edith Blvd., Bernalillo County, New Mexico Reported that voters tried to vote for Kerry and Peroutka's name was recorded. 034353 11/02/04, 8:35 AM PST Machine problem Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Danaher 1242 (#010494) malfunctioning. When selection is made for one office, previous selections are unintentionally de-selected. 035228 11/02/04, 9:08 AM PST Machine problem East Gate Church,12120 Copper Ave, NE, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Voter selection does not light up, other selections do. typically presidential candidaTES from Kerry to 3rd party. Voter persistence seems to help 035436 11/02/04, 9:16 AM PST Machine problem 400 Edith Blvd NE, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Voting Kerry, Perotka (sp?) comes up. 2 reports made through moveon to hotline 035864 11/02/04, 9:32 AM PST Machine problem Armijo E.S., 1440 Gatewood, SW, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Machine accepts vote, but undoes it when subsequent vote is made 042006 11/02/04, 1:19 PM PST Machine problem Albuquerque, bernalillo County, New Mexico Report from Voting Protection Personnel Mariln Brown who was assisting elderly man with voting. When Democrat President candidate selected (red dot with paper system), Libetarian candidate was highlighted. Poll worker instructed on how to correct. Vote was corrected. Same irregularities reported in other area precinct during early voting with touch screens: Democratic party selected, but libertarian candidates highlighted. 042338 11/02/04, 1:29 PM PST Machine problem Alameda Elementary, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Voter pressed button for one candidate; machine lit up for the other candidate. Voter had to re-press several times to get correct candidate to light up. Machine on far left in cafeteria. 042248 11/02/04, 1:35 PM PST Machine problem 412 Alameda Blvd. NW, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Light showing selection not behind voter's choice; took multiple tries. 043872 11/02/04, 2:22 PM PST Machine problem #48 Cochiti Elem, Bernalillo County, New Mexico #10355 - Machine wouldn't properly register the desired vote -- voter would make one selection but machine would register another -- voter was finally able to make desired selection but w/ difficulty 044507 11/02/04, 2:44 PM PST Machine problem 420 General Somervell St. NE, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Voter tried to vote straight party ticket, all lit up except for president; poll worker said was known problem, would be OK. Machine 'C'. 044606 11/02/04, 2:48 PM PST Machine problem 420 General Somervell St. NE, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Machine reset itself after certain period of inactivity while voter thought about ballot propositions; voter revoted, believes vote counted. 044612 11/02/04, 2:47 PM PST Machine problem Hawthorn, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Had to fill out ballot twice because machine cleared all. After going through twice it accepted entries. 045322 11/02/04, 3:18 PM PST Machine problem Georgia O'Keefe Elementary School, 11701 San Victorio Ave. NE, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Voter pressed name box for Kerry/Edwards, Libertarian light came on. Reproducible problem, persistence by voter allowed correct vote; probably ballot misalignment. Machine Serial No. 010154 047355 11/02/04, 4:32 PM PST Machine problem Alameda Elementary, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Machine registered full slate of votes for the wrong party. Voter had to go back and manually change each category. 047522 11/02/04, 4:37 PM PST Machine problem Alameda Elementary Gymnasium, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Problem was with the machine on the left. The voter had to press button several times before machine would register the correct candidate 047570 11/02/04, 4:42 PM PST Machine problem Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico This caller used an electronic voting machine, and after selecting a democratic candidate, noticed that the republican light actually lit up. He had to select the democratic candidate again to cancel it out, and then select it again to make the correct selection. He had to do this for almost all of the people he voted for. Worried that others won't realize the problem. THIS WAS THE SECOND TIME THAT HE CALLED (but I forgot to get the first case #, so I'm not sure what the first issue was) 047678 11/02/04, 4:55 PM PST Machine problem Los Ranchos Elementary School, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Using machine "B" my buttons that I pushed would respond in the other area. Sometimes I would push buttons once and it wouldn't light up, so I'd have to push it again or two times. One-third of the way through my lightgs just went out. I asked the monitor what happened and she didn't know. They still kept letting other people use this machine anyway. 048599 11/02/04, 5:17 PM PST Machine problem Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Pressed "party" they lit up. Then went to props. By the time she finished the whole thing began blinking. Had to go back and recheck party. She does not feel confident vote was recorded. Had to repeat "party selection.ast her vote. 049286 11/02/04, 5:42 PM PST Machine problem Alameda ES, 412 Alameda Blvd. NW, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Voter tried to vote straight ticket, other party selected; voter was able to correct. 059157 11/30/04, 12:50 PM PST Machine problem ABQ, Bernalillo County, New Mexico When water hit one button another light came on. Was able to corect. Hit for Kerry and other candidate lit up (Green) 059286 12/01/04, 10:37 AM PST Machine problem Cochiti E.S.--3100 San Isidiro St. NW, 107, albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico 1 (perhaps 2?) machines broke down a total of 3 times--machine serial number 10353. Incident #1: voter had pressed button on rights side of machine but vote jumped to Nader. #2: All buttons recorded votes properly, except for one judicial race--voter needed to push 6 times. #3: inaccurately recorded vote for president--voter corrected. 059353 12/01/04, 12:33 PM PST Machine problem Bernalillo County, New Mexico One machine (B) was "touchy" and could indicate the wrong vote when a button was pushed. 059414 12/02/04, 8:40 AM PST Machine problem Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Voter was not given option to vote for president on the machine. The other offices were on the ballot. 059464 12/02/04, 10:05 AM PST Machine problem San Jose Elem., Albequerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Voter pushed button to cast vote and it wouldnt register. Third to struggle w/ problem 059472 12/02/04, 10:26 AM PST Machine problem Sombrillo, Sautate [editor’s note: Santa Fe] County, New Mexico "Sticky Machine"; assistance was sought from Judge Pres. Garcia. and machine was cleared. 4 votes had not been sent. City Clerk was called to attend to the problem. 059509 12/02/04, 11:53 AM PST Machine problem 186, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Machine indicated vote for Nader - not voter's choice. He went back several times until machine registered correct vote. Voter told judge, who shrugged and told the voter he must have done it wrong. 059515 12/02/04, 11:52 AM PST Machine problem Albequerque HS, Bernalillo County, New Mexico When buttons were pressed on machine they didnt "take." He said he had to go back and press a few times - he notified the poll workers and they said they wer going to check the machine. 059202 11/30/04, 2:42 PM PST Machine problem Site 33 Alice Hoppes - State Fairgrounds, Albquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Lost selection twice $ blinking in reselected. Twice on 2 different candidates or ballot issues. Ultimately cast ballot OK. 059430 12/02/04, 9:27 AM PST Machine problem Emerson Elementary, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Problem w/ voting booth B. Voter selected presidential candidate, continued to vote for other offices and then presidential choice changed to "something and Dr. ..." 047596 11/02/04, 4:44 PM PST Machine problem 7th Precinct, Las Cruces, Dona Ana County, New Mexico Light by one presidential candidate burned out. Not indicating votes for that candidate. 014203 10/22/04, 3:08 PM PST Machine problem Otero County, New Mexico Voter stated that friend attempted to vote today at county clerk's office in Otero County and that "extraordinary efforts" were required to get voting machine properly to reflect his intended vote; apparently would default to Republican slate 052219 11/04/04, 8:25 AM PST Machine problem Sombrillo, Espanola, SantaFe County, New Mexico When the voter went into the voting booth all the Republican lights were lit. The Presiding Judge cleared the machine and indicated that it had gotten stuck and may had missed counted the votes. The machine was cleared and the voter was allowed to vote. The clerk was notified about the problem and sent a technicain to fix the machine. 054809 11/10/04, 6:12 AM PST Machine problem Dixon, Embudo, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico Voter noticed that she had voted on all issues and candidates but prior to pushing the "cast your vote" button she noticed that some of the items idicated "no vote". 059450 12/02/04, 9:44 AM PST Machine problem Dixon Elem. School, Dixon, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico She voted and before pressing the last button, checked back to see if the votes were recorded accurately and found that in some places "No Vote" appeared. She voted again and then pressed the final button. 059087 11/30/04, 6:25 AM PST Machine problem San Juan County, New Mexico Reported via e-mail to eirhelp: I had problems voting on the touch screen voting machine. Instructed on the use of the machine, I was told that I could vote straight ticket or for individual candidates and then review ballot. But when I pressed straight ticket and reviewed there was no vote cast. thinking this might be operator error I then went through the ballot and voted for each person on the ballot which seemed to show results. I can't help but wonder what happened at the polls for myself and perhaps millions other citizens. 052341 11/04/04, 9:52 AM PST Machine problem Sombrillo, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe County, New Mexico When voter went in the machine button on the Republican ticket was stuck. She hit the button three times before it cleared. This is related to the Shik problem reported as well. Beyond the incident reports, there is suggestive evidence that systems that returned low under-vote percentages in the early election suddenly reversed themselves on election day. The Torrance County disparity was cited earlier. Rio Arriba posted an early election under-vote of just 0.40% on Sequoia’s AVC Edge but somehow managed an under-vote of 5.40% on Sequoia’s AVC Advantage on election day. Sandoval County had just 2 under-votes out of 9068 in the early election on Sequoia’s Edge, a 0.02% under-vote, and yet jumped to 1286 missing presidential votes and a 4.98% under-vote on Danaher Controls’ Shouptronic 1242 on election day. Socorro posted a 0.70% early election under-vote on Sequoia’s Edge but plummeted to a 6.00% under-vote on the notorious Shouptronic on election day. Lest one think Sequoia’s Edge was immune to the bizarre election day disparity, two of the three counties that used the system on election day saw their under-vote percentage also rise dramatically. They include Torrance County who used the same system for both early voting and election day and saw its under-vote jump from 0.88% to 4.61% and Lincoln County who in the early optical scan vote posted a 1.23% under-vote but rose to 4.82% using Sequoia’s Edge on election day. The election day under-vote was so bad in New Mexico, that 6 counties were won by either Bush or Kerry with less than 50% of the vote. We’ve established that there were widespread machine problems during the election. We’ve also established that there was a dramatic jump in under-votes from early and absentee voting to election day and that the under-votes were vastly and disproportionately cast on electronic voting machines. But were the under-votes randomly distributed or did they in fact show a preferential tilt between candidates? The statistical evidence points not only to a tilt but to a dramatic and undeniable correlation that favors Bush at the expense of Kerry. Translated, the under-vote sharply and consistently decreases as Bush support rises and increases as a correlate of increasing Kerry support. It indicates the strong possibility that in heavy areas of Bush support, there were simply fewer Kerry votes to cast aside. Not only do the incident reports indicate candidate bias in how these malfunctions manifested, but the statistics also support it. In fact, the most dramatic indicator of under-vote bias seems to float directly at the 50% edge in Bush support. At 50% of the vote or higher for Bush, the under-vote rate drops off glaringly. The following table filters all counties in New Mexico in order of increasing Bush support on election day. The color key at the bottom provides a reference of the technology used in a given county. Below 50% in Bush support, all 14 counties use either Danaher’s Shouptronic or Sequoia’s Advantage DRE’s. Above 50% are all of the counties using Sequoia’s Edge, all of the optical scan counties, and a sprinkle of the other DRE’s. Tellingly, the two Shouptronics in the Bush column have sharply decreasing under-votes than in any of the counties in which he received under 50%. San Juan at 58.94% Bush support reports an under-vote of 3.61%, the second lowest under-vote percentage on the system, and Lea County with an overwhelming Bush support approaching 77% has an under-vote comparable to op-scan counties at 0.93%. In contrast, San Miguel county with the lowest Bush support had the highest under-vote in the state, an obscene 10.06 percent of missing presidential votes undoubtedly drawn from the larger Kerry base. 85% of the election day under-votes, 14,462 votes, were produced in counties in which Bush’s vote margin was below 50%. Below 50% Bush support, the under-vote rate was 5.30%. Above 50% Bush support, the under-vote rate dropped to 2.32%.
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