Albuquerque caucus is packed

(shakes head)
odd isnt it..

Thanks for the first-hand account!

Glad the turnout was high there. I was just starting to hunt down some info about that.

Soz
The voting closes as 7 p.m. There is over an inch of snow on the ground and it is cold. At least the voters could wait in line inside.

As I was driving hom, I saw the Lady Diane in her car just before she turned off to her street. I didn't honk at her because I didn't want her to run off the road. :wink:

BBB

I couldn't caucus because I tried too late to change my registration. (I was as pissed at the dems as the repubs when I moved here and registered independent for the first time.) Glad it was busy, whomever they all voted for.

Osso
There is a huge parking lot around the building where the voting was taking place. By the time I left about a half hour later, there wasn't a parking space to be found. People were waiting in their cars to park.

It's wonderful that so many people are voting. That mob was there waiting for the place to open. I'm glad I voted early. There will be lots of people in line to vote after the 7 p.m. closing time, so results will be late. Plus, paper ballots were used that have to be hand counted. Don't expect any results news until after 11 p.m.

BBB

I'm jealous. We don't vote here for a long time yet.

engineer


Engineer, I helped you out. I voted once for myself and once for you. How's that for being a good buddy?

BBB

Caucus Voting Becomes 'Chaos'
I'm so glad I voted as soon as the polling place opened. How could the idiots not realize there would be a massive voter turnout? Didn't they pay attention to what was happening around the country. Why does New Mexico continue the caucus system instead of a mail ballot?---BBB

Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Caucus Voting Becomes 'Chaos'
By Leslie Linthicum and Jeff Jones
Albuquerque Journal Staff Writers

Up to three-hour waits. Nearly 2,000 people in line. Voting on scraps of paper. Jostling for parking spaces. And tempers running short. That was caucus day for Democrats across New Mexico as strong voter turnout took party officials by surprise.

All over New Mexico, lines of 100-plus people were common?- along with grumbling over the waits and, in some cases, reports of people opting to leave before they'd inked their ballots for either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama.

"Chaos is going on," frustrated voter Angela Starkey said at Mary Ann Binford Elementary School in Albuquerque. She reported a mob scene and party workers unable to make order of the crowd. "People yelling and screaming. I stood in line for over an hour and I left (without voting.)"

An estimated 1,900 people were waiting to vote at Rio Rancho High School a little after 6 p.m. By about 8:25 p.m., there were still about 400 in line and the last vote was not cast there until after 9 p.m.

It was all part of a flood of interest as New Mexico Democrats cast their ballots in the historic contest between a female candidate and a black candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The caucus was not a state-run election: It was paid for and organized by the state Democratic Party at a projected, estimated cost of $250,000 to $300,000. State Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colón late last month said he expected only 30,000 to 40,000 of New Mexico's 532,000-plus registered Democrats to show up for Tuesday voting, but many more came.

The sites did not open until noon, which forced many to wait until after work to vote. As lines grew longer after 5 p.m., the party issued a hurried statement reminding voters that anyone in line at 7 p.m., when the polls closed, could stay and vote. At several sites, hundreds of voters were still in line at that time.

Running out of ballots

Some voters at Desert Ridge Middle School in Albuquerque reported three hour waits. The site ran out of ballots at 4 p.m., and a huge crowd of voters waited until 200 more ballots sent from party headquarters arrived around 5 p.m. Those ballots were quickly used and caucus workers received permission to make photocopies.

Brendan Ames, who waited in line for 45 minutes at Desert Ridge while Kinko's came to the rescue on the ballot problem, briefly considered giving up on democracy. "I'm still thinking about leaving because the number of ballots they brought in doesn't look like enough" compared with the crush of people in line, he said.

Chaparral Elementary on Albuquerque's West Side also ran out of ballots, and voters had to wait for a new shipment. More than 200 people were still in line at 7 p.m.

Several caucus sites in the Santa Fe area also ran out of ballots during the afternoon?- including Capshaw Middle School, the county fairgrounds and Eldorado Elementary School?- causing voters to wait as more were delivered. Ernie Vigil said he left without voting at the fairgrounds after he showed up about 4:30 p.m. and was told there were no ballots.

At Lowell Elementary in Albuquerque, the caucus site ran out of ballots around 4:30 p.m. "They began making makeshift ballots out of plain white paper," caucus worker Dane Roberts said. Many voters wrote their choices on the papers, despite some misgivings. "People were concerned their votes would not be counted," he said. Party officials said the votes would count as long as they clearly showed the choice.

Colón tried to put the best face on the voter stack-ups: Asked whether he had been getting reports of long lines at numerous locations, he said, "I'm hearing (of) high participation."

Another likely reason for the stack-ups: The Democratic Party rolled many voting precincts into a total of 184 caucus voting sites statewide?- similar to the system it used in its first-ever, New Mexico Democratic presidential caucus in 2004. Some voting sites in Bernalillo County, the most populous in the state, combined voters from 10, 15, even 17 precincts.

One polling place

In Rio Rancho, tempers flared as caucus voters struggled to find parking spaces and then faced waits up to three hours at Rio Rancho High School, the only designated polling place in the city, where 45 precincts were sent to vote.

About 700 people lined up outside the school's Performing Arts Center before polls opened at noon, according to Sandoval County Democratic Party Chairman James L. Moran. The line only grew longer as the day wore on, wrapping around the north side of the complex. Police were called in to help with traffic control, and there were reports of some verbal disputes among voters.

Albert Clarfield, 85, waited in line for an hour before giving up and going home. He said he has asthma and called the long line ridiculous. "It was unbelievable," he said. "I hated to leave, but I swear there was no moving in that line."

In Chaves County, in southeastern New Mexico, more than a dozen precincts were consolidated into one voting site. Running it was Tom Jennings, who said, "It's been a zoo." It was the same story at the 16 polling sites in Doña Ana County.

Asked Tuesday afternoon whether the party should have set up more caucus sites, Colón gave a plug to the party's 4,000 caucus volunteers and added, "With the resources of the party, we're limited in what we can do."

Outcome of N.M. Caucus 'Embarrassing'
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Outcome of N.M. Caucus 'Embarrassing'
By Jeff Jones and Trip Jennings
Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writers

New Mexico's Super Tuesday Democratic presidential caucus was Super Embarrassment on Wednesday and results of the close contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could be days away.

"It makes us a laughingstock of ineptitude," said Andrew Mook of Rio Rancho, 64, who made two attempts to vote Tuesday at an overcrowded Rio Rancho High School caucus site before casting a provisional ballot elsewhere. "Why must we continue to suffer these vestiges of total incompetence?" Mook asked. "It's embarrassing when you look at the maps of the nation on who won and lost the states?- and you see a big asterisk by New Mexico," Journal pollster Brian Sanderoff said.

Just how bad are things in New Mexico?

Out of 22 states that had Democratic nominating contests Tuesday, New Mexico is the only one that couldn't report a winner?- and still can't. The New Mexico Democratic Party organized and ran the caucus and is counting the votes.

With Clinton leading Obama by 1,092 statewide votes Wednesday evening, according to The Associated Press, results will hinge on nearly 17,000 provisional ballots?- the ones issued to voters who have problems at the polls. But the party had not begun counting these ballots by Wednesday evening; it could start today.

The party may be at least partly to blame for the flood of provisional ballots. With people waiting hours to vote at some caucus sites, some decided to cast provisional ballots outside their precincts.

Others who bailed out didn't vote at all: Rio Rancho High School was ground zero for voting problems, with a line of 1,900 people reported at one point, and Mook estimated that "a couple thousand people" wound up walking away during the course of the day without voting in the Clinton-Obama battle.

Accepting blame

Democratic Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez took aim at the Super Tuesday troubles on Wednesday. "Duh! There might be a lot of people voting? ... It's just an embarrassment." Gov. Bill Richardson also had some strong words: "I have expressed my frustration to Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colón," he said in statement.

Richardson successfully pushed in 2003 to move his party's presidential nominating contest from the regular June primary election to early February. He said Wednesday that voters "must decide whether they want to preserve their early voice in the process in the future, and what form it should take."

Colón said Wednesday that he accepts responsibility for the Super Tuesday problems in New Mexico, though he also pointed to an unexpectedly high turnout of more than 153,000 voters and New Mexico's long history of close races. The turnout was close to 30 percent. "The buck stops with me. I lay it squarely on my shoulders," Colón said. "We've got to work harder."

Reasons for problems

Colón said last month that he had expected 30,000 to 40,000 of New Mexico's 532,000-plus registered Democrats to show up for voting on Tuesday. But that estimate came before the Clinton and Obama campaigns kicked their New Mexico efforts into high gear with TV and radio ad blitzes, a parade of high-profile endorsements and last-minute visits from the candidates themselves.

And Tuesday's turnout easily eclipsed New Mexico's first February Democratic presidential caucus in 2004, which drew 104,000. As it did in 2004, the party consolidated hundreds of voting precincts into a smaller number of caucus sites: There were 184 for Tuesday's vote. The party also again shortened the normal state-election voting time: Although state elections start at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m., caucus voting hours were noon to 7 p.m. There were long lines for the 2004 caucus, but they couldn't hold a candle to the mess on Tuesday, with long lines reported nearly everywhere.

'Deeply disturbed'

As the state's highest Democratic elected official, Richardson is at least the symbolic head of the New Mexico party. Asked whether the governor reviewed his party's caucus plan before Tuesday, spokesman Pahl Shipley said he was focused on other things during the past month. "He was fully involved in his presidential campaign until Jan. 11 and then fully involved in the state's legislative session," Shipley said. "Party officials, not the governor, were responsible for the caucus."

The governor acknowledged that problems from Tuesday's caucus reflect poorly on New Mexico, but Shipley said it isn't an example of New Mexico's historical problems with running elections. "I am deeply disturbed by the reports that problems and delays at polling locations may have kept people from voting," Richardson said. "As this very close election shows, every vote is important, and every vote must count. Anything less is unacceptable."

Party Says Counting Provisional Ballots Could Take Days
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Party Says Counting Provisional Ballots Could Take Days
By Jeff Jones And Raam Wong
Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

Now comes the time-consuming process of checking each provisional ballot to ensure it qualifies.

Thousands of provisional ballots were given to voters who cast ballots outside of their designated caucus site, voters whose names couldn't be found on the Democratic party's rolls, and voters who had requested absentee ballots but decided instead to vote in person.

But midafternoon Wednesday, ballot boxes were still being delivered to a northeast Albuquerque accounting firm where the counting will take place, and the counting had not begun. Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colón said the count probably will take days. "It is a time-consuming process," said Democratic Party Executive Director Laura E. Sanchez.

Some problems from Tuesday's vote continued Wednesday in Northern New Mexico. A middle school in Chama served as the sole polling location for a snowy 30-square-mile area that included Tierra Amarilla and Dulce, and one voter called the Journal to complain that the distances that people had to travel from Dulce to Chama effectively disenfranchised them. Lydia Archuleta, the volunteer who managed the polling site, said Chama had been used during the 2004 caucus as well. She acknowledged that voters may have stayed at home after hearing that Chama had been declared a disaster area because of heavy snow. But she added that the roads were clear all day Tuesday, and none of the 324 people who cast ballots complained.

One voter said there was so much confusion at Santa Fe's Capshaw Middle School during midafternoon voting that poll workers couldn't keep track of who had signed in on voter registration sheets, raising the possibility of voter fraud.

Colón said that in rural areas where it was not practical to get ballot boxes back to Albuquerque on Tuesday night, it was not unusual for caucus site managers to report their results, seal the boxes and take them home to be delivered to Albuquerque the next day.

Sen. Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said caucus planners should have foreseen a larger turnout, given the record numbers of voters that had cast ballots elsewhere. "From what I am hearing, the caucus itself went very well. I'm disappointed the party wasn't ready for the number of people who were there," Sanchez said. "It seems like there should have been more ballots available."

Clinton, Obama Divide N.M. Votes
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Clinton, Obama Divide N.M. Votes
By Leslie Linthicum
Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer

The race is neck and neck and the Democratic vote count is still inching forward in New Mexico's version of Super Tuesday, but patterns of preference have emerged.

Hillary Clinton, who has been the favorite among Hispanics nationwide, appeared to win big in New Mexico's four most heavily Hispanic counties and swept almost all of rural New Mexico.

Barack Obama, who has done well elsewhere with educated, affluent white voters, pulled in big numbers in New Mexico's urban corridor. Unofficial results indicate he won big in Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Taos counties and also carried Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, some of the state's most populous.

Exit polling showed Clinton lost some ground with Anglo women voters here?- a constituency that has been huge for her in other contests. Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press indicated Clinton beat Obama among Anglo women, but just barely. In other Super Tuesday states she took three-fifths of the female Anglo vote.

More than half of all Anglo voters backed Obama, according to exit polls.

Veteran political pollster Brian Sanderoff said the county-by-county numbers show patterns of an urban-rural divide as well as ethnic differences. "Clinton won consistently in the rural conservative and the rural Hispanic counties," Sanderoff said. "Obama did very well with Anglo, educated liberals both nationally and in New Mexico?- and Santa Fe and Los Alamos are the epitome of that," he said.

With nearly all of the regular ballots counted, Clinton had won 27 of New Mexico's 33 counties. Clinton took large margins in Guadalupe, Mora, San Miguel and Rio Arriba counties?- the four most heavily Hispanic. In all, exit polls indicated, she took nearly three-fifths of the Hispanic vote. Clinton, according to unofficial results, also won San Juan, McKinley and Cibola counties, the most heavily Native American counties. Sanderoff attributed her taking the Indian vote to visits by both Clintons?- Hillary and former President Bill Clinton?- to Indian Country in years past.

About the Hispanic vote here and elsewhere?

"In addition to the issues, people tend to vote for people they feel a kinship with," Sanderoff said. "If you look at race as a factor, people of Spanish origin may have more of a kinship or relation to a Caucasian." Clinton had nabbed endorsements from many prominent Hispanic Democrats here, including Albuquerque's Mayor Martin Chávez. There were no data on how young people voted, but Chávez on Wednesday said he thought the Clinton-Obama divide might have had more to do with age than race or ethnicity. Chávez noted vote totals showed more urban counties going more heavily toward Obama (with Doña Ana County an exception) while just about all of rural New Mexico went to Clinton. "I don't know if there's an ethnic break," Chávez said. "It may be just as legitimate and informative to look at it as an urban/nonurban cut." And he noted exit polling showed the younger a Hispanic voter, the more likely he was to vote for Obama. "So there was also an age thing," Chávez said. If it did come down to an ethnic divide, Chávez said, Bill and Hillary Clinton's long history with New Mexico Hispanics probably tipped votes in her favor.

Obama's superficial relationship with the state and his appeals to Latinos on issues like driver's licenses for illegal immigrants would fall flat in a state where many Hispanics are not newcomers, Chávez suggested. "That's just not going to resonate with Hispanics here," he said. Chávez pointed to Obama's idea of life in Santa Fe, which Obama talked about on his visit to New Mexico last week?- visiting art galleries and enjoying sidewalk cafes?- as another example of not connecting with Hispanic New Mexico. "That's not going to get you votes in Rio Arriba County," he said. Obama put up big numbers in Los Alamos County, winning 57 percent to Clinton's 36 percent. The margin was the same in Santa Fe County. Taos County went 50 percent for Obama and 40 percent for Clinton. Obama also won the regular ballots in Bernalillo County, although not by a large margin.

Although Clinton was winning most of the state's rural counties by big margins in the ongoing count, turnout there was tepid and the numbers ended up being in the teens and hundreds, not the thousands seen in larger counties. Sanderoff said that showed rural conservatives weren't enthused about either candidate but were more willing to go with the known quantity.

If Obama pulls out a win in New Mexico, Sanderoff said, Santa Feans could be who made the difference. "His margins in Santa Fe offset all of her margins in rural New Mexico," he said. "That's what's allowed this to stay close."

Clinton Wins New Mexico Caucus Vote
Clinton Wins New Mexico Caucus Vote
By HEATHER CLARK,AP
Posted: 2008-02-15 06:37:53
Filed Under: Elections News

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Feb. 14) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton finally won the popular vote in New Mexico's Democratic caucus and picked up one extra delegate Thursday, nine days after Super Tuesday voting ended.

State Democratic Chairman Brian Colon made the announcement after a marathon hand count of 17,000 provisional ballots that had to be given to voters on Feb. 5 because of long lines and a shortage of ballots. The final statewide count gave her a 1,709-vote edge over rival Sen. Barack Obama, 73,105 or 48.8 percent of the total vote to 71,396 or 47.6 percent.

The former first lady's victory in the popular vote swung the final unallocated New Mexico delegate into her column, which gave Clinton 14 delegates in the state to 12 for Obama.

With the addition of New Mexico's delegate, the national delegate count stood at 1,276 for Obama and 1,220 for Clinton on Thursday.

"I am so proud to have earned the support of New Mexicans from across the state," Clinton said in a written statement. "New Mexicans want real solutions to our nation's challenges. As president, I will continue to stand up for New Mexico and will hit the ground running on day one to bring about real change."

The Obama campaign appeared to accept the outcome.

Obama's state director, Carlos Monje Jr., was asked Thursday if he was confident the results were 100 percent accurate and replied, "We have confidence in the process." Asked if Obama might seek a recount, he said Obama has momentum from eight wins since Super Tuesday and "we are going to look forward at the contests we have remaining."

Monje said there were some "troubling aspects" in the conduct of the caucus, including "incredibly long lines that kept people from voting," but he saw their solution in the future. "We're going to continue to work with the New Mexico Democratic state party to make sure the next election goes more smoothly."

Of the 22 states that held Democratic primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday, New Mexico was the last to report a winner. The caucus here was run by the state Democratic party rather than by state government.

Colon, who came under fire for his handling of the troubled election, thanked the hundreds of volunteers who counted the ballots. The final figures "have been double and triple checked," he said in a televised announcement.

New Mexico Democrats call their contest a caucus, but it's not like Iowa's caucuses where voters gather in gyms, churches or meeting rooms, divide into groups for each candidate, try to attract more support from other groups, and then count each group. Rather it more closely resembles a "firehall primary" ?- a primary with shorter voting hours and fewer voting sites than would be found in traditional state primaries.

It was a mess: Overwhelmed polling places with long lines, some up to three hours. Too few ballots. Confusion over where to vote. Bad weather in the north. In Rio Rancho, one of the state's largest cities, a single polling location where 1,900 people remain lined up at 7 p.m on election night.

Colon has apologized repeatedly: "We absolutely miscalculated and I apologize. It's a tragedy when folks are not afforded the opportunity to vote."

The firestorm of criticism included some from Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, a former presidential hopeful who said he was "deeply disturbed" by the problems. Partly because he was a candidate himself until mid-January, Richardson himself never got involved in helping plan or promote the caucus, as he did in 2004, the first year New Mexico tried it.

On Super Tuesday, Clinton and Obama vied for 26 of New Mexico's 38 delegates to this summer's Democratic National Convention. Twelve so-called superdelegates are not bound by caucus results.

New Mexico awards Democratic delegates proportionally, based on statewide vote totals and on the results in individual congressional districts.

In two of the state's three congressional districts, Clinton and Obama equally split an even number of delegates at stake. In District 2, which had an uneven number of delegates, Clinton won the additional one by outpolling Obama by 55 percent to 41 percent, according to unofficial results.

Nine statewide delegates were at stake. Obama and Clinton evenly split the eight delegates already awarded. The final one was assigned to the statewide popular vote winner.