Reply #47: Response from Voters Unite

[PeterPan]

http://www.votersunite.org/info/newmexicophantomvotes.asp


"Phantom Votes Are Not Possible"
says New Mexico's Secretary of State
Yet there are 2,087 phantom votes in her certified canvass report.

Phantom votes are found when the number of votes reported is higher than the number of ballots cast.

The canvass reports on the New Mexico Secretary of State's website show precinct totals and ballots cast, separated into voting types (absentee, early voting, and election day). Analysis shows that there are 2,087 phantom votes reported across the state and present in the certified results.*


Confronted with the evidence of phantom votes in her own canvass reports, Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron explained that they are impossible and denied their existence.**



Independent auditors that looked at the state's canvass, or final report, did not find any problems like that, she said. "They didn't find any irregularities like that," Vigil-Giron said.

Election results are checked at the county canvassing board level, the state level and later by the independent auditor, Vigil-Giron said.

"Listen," she told a reporter. "I'm a Democrat. If I would have found some irregularities, believe you me I would have brought them out and questioned them."

Nevertheless there they are, right in the canvassing details posted on the Ms. Vigil-Giron's website. The Bernalillo County, Precinct 512 example Mr. Lenderman points to in his article can be found at http://www.sos.state.nm.us/PDF/Bernalillo.pdf.

Look on page 41 for the total number of certified presidential votes on the absentee ballots in Precinct 512 (Kerry 104; Bush 206; Badnarik 2; Nader 6). They add up to 318. Move to page 69. The last column lists the "Totals taken from signature roster." That's the total number of absentee voters in each precinct. For Precinct 512 that number is 166.

Another of the 250 precincts with phantom votes is Dona Ana County, Precinct 106, with 325 absentee votes resulting from 107 absentee ballots cast. For details, look on pages 10 and 12 of the Dona Ana County canvass report. (http://www.sos.state.nm.us/PDF/Dona_Ana.pdf).

Top 20 phantom-vote precincts
All 2,087 phantom votes

* Summary Report on New Mexico State Election Data. By Warren Stewart and Ellen Theisen. December 21, 2004.

* Vote Recount Fight 'Is Not Over'. Albuquerque Journal. December 24, 2004. By Andy Lenderman, Journal Politics Writer.

New Mexico also had the highest 2004 presidential undervote rate in the nation -- that is ballots for which no presidential vote is reported.

We don't spend a lot of time on undervote issues.
I'm just speculating that some voters
are just not concerned with the presidential race.
~ New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron