Richardson and the 2004 election question...

Maybe you can help me out here ~ this issue raises red flags for me, but I haven't seen enough about it to know what to think.

Did Richardson refuse to recount NM votes? If so, why? What were the reasons he gave?

Do you think it had to do with Clinton running in 08 with him possibly on the ticket, making it "better" if Kerry lost in 04?

This story creeps me out ~ anyone know the truth about the situation?

:popcorn:

edit: typo

What reason was given?

I sure as hell do not find any logical reason for his action.

:tinfoilhat:

:tinfoilhat:

One line doesn't show me anything either way. What's the full story?

Tired of posting the news links for his followers

Considering Carville's questionable behavior on election night, this NM story makes me wonder whether democracy was most undermined in 04 by the Reps or the DLC ~ a truly sickening thought.

Guess I'll keep Richardson on my short list...

And what happened with the recount??

I've always liked Richardson, but really wonder what his explanation is.

Nothing about Bill Richardson wiping machines before a recount could be done, nor why he would have done it--either officially or unofficially.

The footnotes are number-crunching, though they seem more like an attempt to prove an argument than to analyze the data objectively. I haven't crunched through them enough to have an opinion on whether they reveal discrepancies, cheating, or standard mistakes, but the data does seem troublesome, assuming it has been handled objectively.

Found all the info I needed in Seasat's Journal article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3313106#3313435

Great links in her journal, too.

:hi:

"In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes, malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots."

<http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen/1>

That's all I need to know.

TC

Governor Bill Richardson Urges Standard Paper Ballot System for all New Mexico Counties

SANTA FE - Governor Bill Richardson today announced that he will work with the Legislature to provide $11 million over two years to purchase new voting machines for all New Mexico counties. The Governor will propose a uniform system of machines with a paper trail that allow voters to verify how they voted. ... Currently, there is no statewide voting system standard. There are at least six different voting systems used throughout the state. Under Governor Richardson's plan, all counties would use a paper ballot "marksense"� system.

Attorney General Madrid added, "I applaud the Governor's initiative in seeking to standardize voting in New Mexico with one uniform paper ballot verifiable system. I am hopeful this will provide needed voter confidence in our elections."

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5829

I'm not a Richardson fan because his views are to the right of mine, but it seems like he's made an effort to atone for past mistakes on this issue.

I posted a journal article on it because every time Richardson starts to show some movement in the polls, someone invariably brings this up.

Richardson did not block the recount. The recount was requested by the Green and Libertarian parties not the Democratic Party. The New Mexico electoral commission, of which Richardson was a member, required the Greens and Libertarians to put up the cost of the entire recount in a bond. The petitioners refused and appealed to the courts but lost every case. After the NM supreme court turned them down on Jan 14th the NM secretary of state gave permission for the machines to be cleared for school elections the first of February.

New Mexico has 5 electoral votes. Kerry needed 18 electoral votes to win. There were 4000 under votes on the countable paper ballots and they were in the normal percentage for an election. Repolling the electronic voting machines is not going to give you a different number. * won by 6000 votes. There is no data that supports that a recount could have turned the election to Kerry.

NM admitted there were problems with their voting machines and Bill Richardson ushered through several voting reform bills in time for the 2006 election. One requires paper ballots with an auditable paper trail and random audits to assure accuracy. He has also traveled to my state, Florida, to help promote paper ballots over electronic voting.

I wonder why Kerry didn't request a recount. I guess NM wouldn't have made a big difference since he was short 18 electoral votes. He should have fought harder in Ohio.

Your Journal article has great info. I'll bookmark it. :hi:

Came across some of this during my search this afternoon, but so far have found no explanation for the malfunction of machines regarding so many presidential votes. I truly hope the DLC would not stoop to some of the same tactics that Reps use, but after seeing how they've treated Dean and reading about Carville's election night activity, I don't know what to think. But I assure you this thread has nothing to do with Richardson's rise in the polls ~ I've been hoping for that rise.

The stories about the recount are repeated by several others each time Richardson shows some activity. Usually a thread is started by someone who either supports or are considering supporting Richardson to find out what the story was about. I'd put you in the latter category.

The Democratic Secretary of State and the local election officials were in charge of directing the machines to each district. They'd already used the system when Richardson was elected governor in 2002. It looks like they put the machines in the poorer counties not as a way of disenfranchising voters but with good intentions of what they thought were the most accurate voting machines.

I'm in Florida and we were inundated with the black box machines at the same time as New Mexico. They were billed as more accurate than the punch card machines that I voted with in 2000. However, these machines are easier for someone not familiar with technology to foul up. I've personally seen elderly folks walk away from the the touch screen voting machines without because they couldn't figure them out. There were not many MSM reports on the problems with these machines until the 2004 election.

A case in point was the machine with the highest under vote, the push button machines from Sequoia Advantage and Danaher Shouptronic. It seems that on some of these machines when you selected a party, it automatically selected all candidates from that party. If you then selected a candidate for a particular race from the same party the machine deselected the candidate. Apparently the programing was designed so you could make a party line vote and then change a few races where you wanted a different candidate. It was a stupid design.

If anyone was to blame I'd probably put it on the Secretary of State who was in charge of elections and in office before Richardson was elected. She should have done more research before approving those machines. Without some sort of smoking gun, I can't see how Richardson could be blamed for the debacle in NM.

Personally, I'm torn between Richardson and Obama for who to support. I like most of Richardson's policies, his experience, and even his quirky humor in speaking. However, he needs to get better at debates and confrontational style interviews. IMHO, Obama would do better in the GE because he can handle those situations. Richardson improved in his last debate but needs to hire a trainer to help him prep for these situations. He also needs to hire a researcher to feed him information he can use in debates and interviews. If he gets those issues taken care of he has a chance of getting in the top tier.

After reading everything suggested on this thread, in addition to a bunch of googled articles, two things continue to bother me:

- The design flaw didn't seem to occur in all the machines, but much more in Dem-leaning Hispanic and Native American areas, making it less likely that it was a design flaw at all. Well-known Princeton studies have shown how easy it is to tamper with voting machines, so I want to know who tampered with the machines in NM and why the Dem leaders of the state missed it or allowed it to happen.

- There's no ethical reason for Richardson to order the machines wiped clean before a complete recount could take place. It's no wonder that when a DU member recently met BR on the street and asked about it, Richardson refused to answer.


Seems to me some Dems were perfectly happy to see Dean and Kerry removed from the picture, and some (Carville et al??) may have knowingly contributed to their demise. After giving my time, energy and money to Dem candidates since the 1970s, I'm no longer sure that the enemy within isn't every bit as threatening to the progressive movement as the Republican enemy.

It's all in there. Palast also wrote Recipe for a Cooked Election, that lays out details for NM.

Bottom line is that Richardson kept his cowardly head down (illegally?) while others were thwarting recount efforts.

He then jumped on the election reformers' bandwagon to take credit for improvements, while conveniently "forgetting" who was in charge while the horrors he now decries took place.

"Creepy" is as good a word as any.

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Just read "Recipe" ~ is Palast suggesting that Richardson and his Sec'y of State were behind the faulty machines, that they wanted Hispanic and Native American votes to go uncounted even though they were probably votes for Kerry?

My God, isn't it enough that Reps steal votes to keep Dems out of office ~ we might as well hang it up if Dems are stealing votes to keep Dems out of office!

At least on Richardson's part. Rather that Richardson didn't want it revealed that he's presided over a farce of a process.

As you can see from post #17, as long as there is a defensible "story" political damage is minimized.

It's just like with the failure to impeach. Doing the right thing without a guarantee that you'll come up smelling like roses in the end is just not in their nature.

The goal in "moving" these types is to make them fear inaction more than action.

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This thing is really disturbing! Who in the heck okay'd the placement of those machines?

Since Diebold had already committed to "helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President," no Dem Governor should have allowed Diebold machines to be used in their state, much less in Hispanic and Native American areas traditionally leaning Dem. Just that part alone is astounding ~ to then keep a legal recount from taking place is really too much!!

I was so thrilled and hopeful after last year's election ~ but watching those chickenshit Dems in Congress and considering stories like this one and the Carville Capers makes me think none of them are worth shit, much less my time and energy.

Thanks again for all the info! :)