Feb 14, 5:24 PM EST-Clinton Wins N.M. Caucus Vote

[katty]

Source: AP

Feb 14, 5:24 PM EST


Clinton Wins N.M. Caucus Vote

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NEW_MEXICO_CAUCUSES?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=news_generic.htm


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- New Mexico's Democratic party chairman announces Thursday that Hillary Rodham Clinton won the state's Democratic caucus.

A marathon vote-count that went on for nine days after the Feb. 5 election ultimately added one more delegate to her total. That gives Clinton 14 delegates from New Mexico to 12 for her rival Sen. Barack Obama.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NEW_MEXICO_CAUCUSES?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=news_generic.htm

[skipos]

1. NM must feel good to know they matter now.

It would have been sad if Obama won, and NM didn't matter anymore.

[sloppyjoe25s]

7. as i've said before - we really WANTED...

to not matter!!

- well - at least we made it too close to call. Now if Ohio and Texas can make it this close - Obama will have it in the bag!

[easy_b94]

2. This Only Makes Obama delegates count bigger!!!

And what the Hell took so long......Hmmmmmmm

[stillcool]

5. It seems kind of normal...

from earlier today...

NM Democrats rechecking canvassed results
By HEATHER CLARK / Associated Press
Article Launched: 02/14/2008 06:05:34 AM MST

ALBUQUERQUE - State Democratic Party officials said they were rechecking canvassed results from the Feb. 5 presidential caucus on Wednesday, a day after they had released them on the party's Web site.

The party had announced what they termed the "final totals" of their count of absentee and regular ballots Tuesday and posted a news release and link to them on their Web site, but removed those items later that evening.
----------------------------------------
The Web site's link had been visible for about five hours Tuesday evening with what the party had said were the canvassed results before it was removed later that night. The total votes statewide did not match the party's county-by-county totals.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_8256142

.........from 2004

Impossible Phantom Votes in New Mexico
by Warren Stewart
December 30, 2004

"That can't be what they really call them!" I exclaimed in amusement. But Lowell Finley, legal counsel for the Green/Libertarian recount effort in New Mexico, assured me that 'phantom vote' was indeed the common legal term for the puzzling phenomenon I had uncovered in looking at the state's canvass report. A phantom vote occurs when the number of votes recorded exceeds the number of ballots cast. Mathematically, phantom votes are merely the inverse of undervotes. Undervotes, which show up when there are less votes than ballots cast, can be accounted for more or less persuasively in one way or another but I have yet to come up with any acceptable explanation for phantoms. Much less, 2,087 of them statewide in New Mexico, just about one third of the margin of victory that determined the selection of that state's presidential electors.
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1055

[sloppyjoe25s]

8. What took so long was...

well... i'm an NM native - basically - we are kinda out in the boondocks here in caseya didn't know.

it was a bit of a disaster - they had way too few polling places. Estimated 40K turnout and got 150K.

the result was people went wherever lines were shortest - got handed provisional ballots when they were not on the list where they showed up. Then the party (which is a tad bit disorganized to begin with here) - had 17,000 provisionals - all of which had to be hand verified against registration info - cross checked (by hand) - to make sure people did not vote in two locations...

There was also a huge snow storm in northern part of state 2 feet - which crippled the ability of people to get to right place. Some ballot boxes apparently "spent the night" at election officials homes - in one case where the county Chair's husband was an on-record endorser of Clinton.

in short... a mess. Embarassing to some of us - but there you have it.

I still say we "don't matter", whatever Hillary tries to say. ;)

Oh yea - and we were a closed primary - only Democrats - no independents. If indies could have voted Obama would have won in a landslide. Texas and Ohio are open btw.

[stillcool]

3. another article from today...

what a cliff-hanger...

NM Democrats rechecking canvassed results
By HEATHER CLARK / Associated Press
Article Launched: 02/14/2008 06:05:34 AM MST

ALBUQUERQUE - State Democratic Party officials said they were rechecking canvassed results from the Feb. 5 presidential caucus on Wednesday, a day after they had released them on the party's Web site.

The party had announced what they termed the "final totals" of their count of absentee and regular ballots Tuesday and posted a news release and link to them on their Web site, but removed those items later that evening.
----------------------------------------
The Web site's link had been visible for about five hours Tuesday evening with what the party had said were the canvassed results before it was removed later that night. The total votes statewide did not match the party's county-by-county totals.
------------------------------------
The party has until Feb. 15 to finish the count, and Colon was confident with the pace of the process.

"I'm very optimistic that we will actually beat the deadline of February 15th," he said.

About a dozen party and campaign officials were engrossed in counting the provisional ballots at an Albuquerque accounting firm Wednesday. More than 9,000 provisional ballots cast were unable to be qualified, Colon said.

[displacedtexan]

4. Excellent news!

Thanks for posting!

Have a heart!

[RBInMaine]

6. The REAL story is the Obama almost won in this Feb. 5th state.

The real story is that Obama almost won in this Feb. 5th state with such a large Latino population.
Hillary won by just 1%. This is NOT big news. And I will say this, unlike Hillary, Obama won't be whining about how she won, "Just because of the Latino vote" or she won "only because Hillary activists voted" which is the kind of line Hillary has used to dismiss her caucus and primary losses to Obama. GO OBAMA !!!!

[TankLV]

9. Way to go Hillary!

what's especially so funny is seeing the obamabots trying to spin this as a win for obama.

Hillary wins: It's really an obama win, because he came close...

Obama wins: Hillary should drop out, even tho it was close or she has more delegates...

gotta love their "logic"

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

[IndianaGreen]

10. 14-12, at this rate Hillary will catch up with Obama by 2012!

Considering NM large Latino population, this could be a predictor of how TX will turn out.