Muchos greenbacks for Green Party recount

CAROL A. CLARK  Los Alamos Monitor   02 December 2004

Despite the high costs such a move will incur, 2004 Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb filed official requests for a recount of all presidential ballots cast in New Mexico and Nevada during last month's general election. Cobb filed the requests jointly on Monday with Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik, as he did recently in Ohio.

Los Alamos Republican Party Chair JoAnn Johnson said she was puzzled as to why the Green Party filed for a recount.

"I don't see the point in it, certainly here in New Mexico because even if the results were different - it wouldn't change the national outcome," Johnson said in an interview Wednesday evening. "I'm confused as to what they hope to accomplish."

Like Johnson, Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron said in an interview from Santa Fe this morning that she is confused over the request for a recount. She said the state will not pay for the substantial expense the re-count will cost.

Vigil-Giron's office oversees New Mexico's entire election process, which includes maintaining a computerized listing of the state's registered voters, testing and evaluating voting machines, and certifying precinct boundary maps.

"We will not be responsible for paying for this recount," Vigil-Giron said. "We received a deposit from the Green Party that will only cover about one quarter of the entire cost. We are still calculating all of the expenses and will present them with the total cost, which they will be required to pay upfront."

Vigil-Giron estimates the recount will cost between $600,000 and $7,000,000 to complete. Some 8,000 poll workers will have to be summonsed by the sheriff and the Green Party will have to pay the cost to generate all those summons plus the cost for sheriffs to deliver them all, she said.

"I am not sure what's motivating them," Vigil-Giron said. "It's not going to change the outcome of the election - I'm not sure what kind of outcome they expect but if they're willing to pay the expense then we will certainly go through the exercise of recounting the ballots for them."

"The Green Party's dedication to protecting the integrity of the election process has led me to file for a recount in both New Mexico and Nevada," Cobb said in a Monday news release. "We want to ensure that every vote is counted and verify the accuracy of the electronic voting machines, particularly those which produce no paper trail."

Rick Lass of Santa Fe has been a member of the Green Party for 10 years and is authorized by the Cobb campaign to speak to local media on behalf of the Green Party, he said during an interview Wednesday.

Cobb, 41, a lawyer from Eureka, Calif., has family living in Santa Fe, Lass said. "He'll be arriving here (Wednesday) for a press conference tomorrow at the Round House," Lass said.

"There are four main areas of concern we want to address by requesting this recount. The first is to uncover any irregularities or discrepancies in the official count and any disenfranchised voter incidents. The second is to call for a voting machine paper trail, the third calls for non-partisan oversight of all elections, and the fourth pertains to election reform such as same day voter registration."

Cobb Media Director Blair Bobier said in the news release that it is absolutely critical to verify the accuracy of electronic voting machines. Voting without independent checks and balances is a meaningless exercise, Bobier said.

In Nevada, the lack of paper trails or receipts for electronic voting machines is the primary concern, according to Cobb's news release.

The New Mexico presidential election was marred by reports of voter suppression and problems with electronic voting machines, according to the release.

The Los Alamos County Clerk's office was contacted by the Secretary of State's office Wednesday, confirmed Deputy Clerk Adriana Lucero in an interview this morning.

"They wanted to know how many poll workers we had during the election," Lucero said.

Lucero broke down the local count of 80 election workers as follows:

s 67 workers at the polls

s 3 workers counted absentee ballots

s 6 staff members

s 4 workers at the early voting alternate site

Local Democrat Jeanne Bridge was co-chair of the Kerry for President campaign committee in Los Alamos and indicated that she believes the recount is important to future elections during an interview this morning.

"The recount of New Mexico ballots is critical in order to verify the accuracy of the vote, especially in those precincts using new technologies," Bridge said. "This recount process will provide the opportunity to correct any irregularities prior to future elections. The recount will affirm our faith in Democracy."

In an unrelated legal challenge, an election contest case was heard Monday in Reno addressing allegations that people employed by Sproul & Associates, an Arizona-based firm hired by the Republican National Committee, tore up and discarded voter registration forms completed by Democratic voters, according to the news release.

The New Mexico Green Party is a grassroots organization of citizens working together for political and social renewal. They are an autonomous statewide group that recognizes the national Green program but are not bound by decisions of Greens outside New Mexico.