By Shea Andersen
Tribune Reporter
Allegations of voter fraud are serious enough to warrant a full investigation, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias said today.
To that end, he has convened a short-lived task force to investigate any and all questionable activities coming up to Election Day on Nov. 2.
"It appears that mischief is afoot, and questions are lurking in the shadows," Iglesias said.
Creation of the task force, which will quit work Nov. 16, follows a court decision Tuesday that struck down Republican-led efforts to require county clerks to demand identification from voters who don't register in person with the county.
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VOTER FRAUD HOT LINE
If you suspect voter fraud in any form, please call the U.S. Attorney's Office with information at (505) 889-1300.
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The plaintiffs group, which also included a Green and a Democrat, was concerned about thousands of new voter registrations, some faulty, that have flooded the Bernalillo County Clerk's Office.
The group will pursue the case further, but has not decided whether to formally ask the judge to reconsider the case or file an appeal, members said at a press conference this morning in Albuquerque.
"We're on the right side on this issue," said plaintiff Steve Cabiedes, Green Party candidate for Bernalillo County clerk.
Iglesias said the new task force, which includes representatives from the FBI as well as the state Department of Public Safety, would act on as many voter fraud allegations as possible.
"If provable, these activities will go before civil court," Iglesias said. "The task force is ready to investigate all legitimate referrals."
The federal penalties for various election crimes can range from five years in prison and a fine of $10,000 for paying voters to register, to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for preventing minority voters from casting ballots, Iglesias said.
John Wheeler, general counsel for the Department of Public Safety, said such crimes are mirrored in state statutes.
"We will insure that the laws of New Mexico's election code are scrupulously enforced," Wheeler said.
But time is scarce for Iglesias and company to make any headway. With 53 days before the election, he admitted the group would be under the gun.
"We can certainly begin the investigation right away," Iglesias said.
He acknowledged that his team is already investigating one allegation, but declined to give details.
He also said the much publicized case of a 13-year-old boy who was registered by a third party would qualify for investigation.
Glen Stout, the Republican father of the boy, was a plaintiff in the recent voter ID case.
The plaintiffs group raised another questionable registration this morning - a former Albuquerque resident who lives in Phoenix but received a new voter registration card at his parents' address.
They also released results of a commissioned poll of 400 newly registered New Mexico voters, in which 99 percent said they would be able to show identification at the voting booth.
The poll, conducted Sunday by Steve Kinney, a partner with Public Opinion Strategies, used names and numbers from the Secretary of State's Office. The respondents included Democrats, Republicans and undecided voters.
Iglesias said the situation of questionable voter registrations has simply become too fishy to ignore.
"There's a lot of information that's of a questionable nature," Iglesias said. "We're getting lots of referrals from people across the spectrum that this election may be dirty."
The news made one area Republican happy. Vic Segura, the state chairman of the Republican Hispanic Assembly, said he had referred some voter fraud questions to Iglesias, and was pleased to see the task force starting up.
John Wertheim, chairman of the New Mexico Democratic Party, praised the formation of the task force, but he expressed concern Wednesday that it would receive sufficient public scrutiny and that its efforts to seek the truth would be truly nonpartisan.
But while the task force digs, the Bernalillo County Clerk's Office is still wading through mounds of new voter registration cards and other voter information changes.
Jaime Diaz, who heads the clerk's Elections Bureau, said his office is entering between 800 and 1,000 registration cards per day. Some of those are new registrants, he said, but some are also filing changes of their voter identification information, such as address changes.
"It's business as usual," Diaz said. "We've still got a lot of work to do."
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