Objections dismissed: NM election machine suit will go to court!

[Stevepol]

It looks like the New Mexico lawsuit to hold the state's feet to the fire with regard to the voting machines (Sequoia) used in the 04 election will go to court. The state has tried to get it dismissed and they've suddenly decided to require a paper ballot, but the activists in NM are going thru w/ their suit. This will mean that the evidence that they've found showing that the machines are unreliable (because they have no paper trail and miscounted votes) WILL BE REVEALED IN COURT in an actual court case. This should really prove interesting if it continues to proceed.


News: Santa Fe / NM

This is from THE NEW MEXICAN. The log at top says FREE NEW MEXICAN.

Judge releases county clerks from voting-machine case
(2 comments; last comment posted Yesterday 08:25 am) print | email this story


By Julie Ann Grimm The New Mexican |
January 19, 2006


A lawsuit filed on behalf of voters who claim touch-screen voting machines are unreliable will go forward following a state District Court judge’s denial of several motions from the defendants, including the secretary of state and several county clerks.

snip

Mathis also denied a motion for summary judgment from the Secretary of State’s Office that sought to dismiss the complaint brought by a dozen individual New Mexico voters, Voter Action New Mexico and the Progressive Alliance for Community Empowerment.

The voters, who cast ballots on touch-screen voting machines during the 2004 general election, said the machines shouldn’t be used in the state’s elections because their results are not verifiable. Some voters have said the machines appeared to have malfunctioned by recording votes for a candidate for which they did not cast a vote.

Boyd said Wednesday’s rulings means the groups’ lawsuit to keep Sequoia AVC Edge touch-screen machines out of the state’s elections will probably go all the way to trial.




Link: http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/38113.html

[Febble]

1. Excellent

NM is such a good test case because the evidence for miscounts on DREs is so clear, especially in precincts serving black and hispanic communities. It undermines the whole case for DREs reducing the high residual vote rate associated with punchcards. Undervote rates were high, especially on the pushbutton DREs.

[Wilms]

2. New Mexico Lawsuit Moves Forward

New Mexico Lawsuit Moves Forward

By Warren Stewart, director of Legislative Issues and Policy, VoteTrustUSA

January 19, 2006

snip

In a press release issued by VoterAction in response to the governor’s initiative, the attorneys explained that “in the Lopategui litigation, Plaintiffs have already obtained critical evidence in discovery about the untrustworthiness of touchscreen voting systems and the serious inadequacy of the Secretary of State’s process for auditing election results. By gathering more evidence through depositions and inspection of voting systems, plaintiffs will be in a position to seek timely judicial relief should the Governor’s plan not be implemented.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=793&Itemid=113

[Peace Patriot]

3. CONGRATULATIONS and hip-hip-HOORAH for...

..."the dozen individual New Mexico voters, Voter Action New Mexico and the Progressive Alliance for Community Empowerment" and their lawyers!!!!!

Way to go! That's patriotism! That's belief in democracy! That's persistence and hard work! That's true grit! That is commitment to the truth!

The fraud is getting exposed! By God, the fraud is getting EXPOSED!

I love you guys! My deepest thanks to you!

[babylonsister]

4. Richardson seems awfully quiet; and isn't he the one who

authorized scrapping the results before they were analyzed, or am I in the wrong state?
This is good news!

[nmliberal]

5. NM's Democratic Secretary of State authorized scrapping results,

It's the nature of the political, governing beast that Richardson relied on his Secretary of State, Rebecca Vigil-Giron and her Election Bureau Director, Denise Lamb, who advised no evaluation was necessary...it is THEIR job, after all.

They are both Democrats, so we New Mexicans STILL have a hard time understanding why Vigil-Giron and Lamb accepted Bush's 'win' when there was so much evidence to the contrary...but I hate to see Richardson blamed unfairly.

[drfresh]

6. If we still have a judiciary by then -nt