SUN Staff Report
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama beat Republican John McCain so thoroughly Tuesday night that even before the polls closed in Rio Arriba County and the rest of New Mexico some national media outlets had declared Obama was well on his way to victory.
Fellow Democrat, Rep. Tom Udall was right on Obama’s heels as he claimed a dominating win over Republican rival Rep. Steve Pearce for the United States Senate seat that is being vacated by Pete Domenici (R-NM). Democrat Ben Ray Lujan followed their victories with a clear-cut win in the three-way race for Northern New Mexico’s congressional seat.
Even Jerome Block Jr., the highly controversial state Public Regulation Commission District 3 Democratic candidate, received a decisive victory.
Obama, Udall and Lujan all won Rio Arriba County with at least 73 percent of the vote. Obama’s margin of victory (74 percent to McCain’s 24 percent) hadn’t been seen, even in heavily Democratic Rio Arriba County, since 1992 when Bill Clinton won 75 percent of the County vote and beat George H.W. Bush by 50 percentage points.
The County Clerk’s office reported that a total of 16,861 voters, or 66 percent of the County’s 25,507 total registered voters, participated in the general election. That total included 1,774 absentee voters, whose ballots were still being counted at 2 a.m. election night, Deputy County Clerk Maria Elena Rodela said. As of Wednesday morning, Rio Arriba was one of six counties whose absentee tally had not been published on the Secretary of State’s web site.
Rodela said the absentee ballot board was having trouble with some ballots because the voters had “colored” all over the place and the machines were “spitting” them out.
Nevertheless, the County recorded its highest voter turnout since 1992 and had more than 1,000 more voters than the 2004 election.
None of the drama of the last two elections was present Tuesday since New Mexico fell clearly to Obama early in the night. George W. Bush had cut into the Democrat’s dominance in Rio Arriba to a certain degree in the 2004 election when he captured 35 percent of the County vote. But this time around a more unified County Democratic Party that held joint functions for the first time in years, an aggressive Obama campaign that opened up offices in Española and Chama and the ever present Bush-fatigue factor all worked in the Democrats favor.
Katy and Rick Blanchard, of Youngsville, didn’t hesitate before casting their vote for Obama.
“This is by far the most important election in my lifetime,” Katy Blanchard said. “We need someone to take this country into the 21st century and take the government away from the good ol’ white boy establishment.”
Local Elections
The only other contested election on the ballot was the highly caustic contest that Block Jr. and Green Party candidate Rick Lass for the Commission’s District 3 seat, which covers much of Rio Arriba County and is being vacated by Lujan. Despite being the target of an investigation for campaign finance irregularities in the run-up to the election, Block easily capture Rio Arriba County with 70.5 percent of the vote.
At midnight, before results had come through from Taos or Sandoval counties, Lass said he was not ready to concede. Lass had won Santa Fe County, and Block was only up by 7 percent, when the Democrat declared victory in the race.
Block congratulated Lass on a well-fought campaign. However, Block said if it hadn’t been for negative media exposure surrounding what the Secretary of State deemed his illegal contributions using public funds, he would have won by a wider margin.
“It’s closer than I would have wanted it to be,” he said. “It was a hard-fought race, but I’m glad the people of Northern New Mexico got a chance to speak.”
Block still has a chance to escape paying the Secretary of State-imposed fines if he decides to go forward with arbitration proceedings. The money is due by Nov. 14, but Block said he is still deciding what to do.
“I’m gonna take my time and look into it,” he said. “We’re gonna explore our options.”
None of Rio Arriba County’s state legislators, all of whom are Democrats, faced any opposition (see page A11 for results) in the general election. Neither did any of the candidates running for Rio Arriba and Santa Fe county offices.
Lujan was able to defeat Republican candidate Dan East, of Rio Rancho, by a wide margin despite the presence of a viable third candidate, Carol Miller, of Ojo Sarco, who received just over 12 percent of the total vote in the race.
East said he was pleased with the race he ran, and he found a lot of support in the District.
“I think it’s just a year for the Democrats,” East said. “I’m not done. I believe I’ve got something to offer and I believe the voters will see in two years.”
East, who pulled in about a third of the District’s votes, said he hadn’t set a precise goal for a number of votes or a percentage of the total turnout.
“I went out and tried to touch 600,000 hands in 10 months — it’s a little tough to do,” East said. “And I tried to get as many people out to vote as I could.”
Lujan campaign manager Carlos Trujillo said Lujan, is honored and humbled to win the support of voters.
“Tonight is just amazing all together,” Trujillo said. “There’s a whole new team for this country and for New Mexico.”
Trujillo said when the ballots came in Tuesday, there were no real surprises. Pre-election polls had given Lujan a significant advantage. East’s numbers came out basically as the Lujan campaign predicted, Trujillo said.
“There’s a segment of the population that’s a base Republican component,” Trujillo said. “So when you look at the numbers mathematically, it is where it was supposed to be.”
Lujan’s father, Ben Lujan, also won his race. The House Speaker ran unopposed in the general election.
Miller could not be reached for comment.
Election Day
Several Rio Arriba precincts reported high turnout Tuesday, but long lines were a rarity in the County.
In Abiquiú, poll workers and observers said an early morning rush prompted a call to the County Clerk’s office requesting additional booths.
“We had a solid out the door, with people busy to vote before they went to work,” Mike Beddo, an observer for the Republican Party said. “We only had a couple of those cardboard cutout booths there. They had to have people sit at the cafeteria tables to fill out their ballots. I’d never seen that here.”
Poll workers at the El Rito Community Center also reported an overwhelming turnout, with more than 50 percent of registered voters casting a ballot before 1 p.m.
That precinct was subject to supervision by an unusual concentration of election watchdogs. At one point, five separate poll-watchers converged at the polling place at the same time — a Democratic poll watcher, a lawyer sent by the Obama campaign and three volunteers from two other organizations.
In Alcalde at the precinct two polling station around 30 people were already lined up at the door at 7 a.m. when the site opened, Presiding Judge David Martinez said. Despite the morning rush voters were in and out within about 10 to 15 minutes he said.
After that the morning at the Alcalde Community Center, where the station was located, had remained steady, he said.
“It’s been pretty quiet,” he said.
County Clerk Fred Vigil presided over the final election during his 10-year tenure Tuesday. He reported that election day went smoothly for the most part. His office had no problems with the voter machines, but he was less than thrilled with the watchers and challengers that hovered around many Rio Arriba polling sites.
“The challengers and watchers were a little annoying,” he said. “I think the voters were a little intimidated.”
He said the challengers and watchers stood over the poll workers as they worked and “asked a lot of silly questions.”
The challengers and watchers, themselves, defended their role in the election.
“I think there’s more voter protection than voters today,” Democratic poll challenger Sarb Nam Kaur Khalsa said.
Things became tense early in the day in La Mesilla, where poll challengers from both major parties butted heads with precinct officials.
Republican poll challenger Debra Anderson and Democratic poll challenger Sheri Raphaelson, the Española attorney, said they initially raised a concern because of the way voters were signing in.
“Immediately we noticed that the poll workers were not following the law,” Raphaelson said.
As voters came into the polling place, they would scan a voter roster, find their name and number, and present that i.d. number to election workers. That’s contrary to state election law, which says voters must identify themselves by stating their name, address as registered and year of birth to election officials.
Why does the distinction matter?
“A stranger can walk in and look at the book and say, ‘Today, I’m gonna be Jose Valdez,’” said Joseph Bosco, a lawyer representing the Republican National Committee.
Bosco and Raphaelson both said the main issue isn’t a philosophical one of what could happen, or what’s the best way to sign in voters. Rather, it’s a matter of following the law.
“There is a statute that mandates how it’s to be done,” Bosco said.
Precinct Judge Gilbert Vigil said he had been signing in voters the same way for 20 years, and he thought the main difference this year was the presence of poll challengers.
The conflict came to a head when Gilbert Vigil called police. He said he thought the poll challengers, who looked over the shoulders of precinct workers to double-check the validity of each voter, were getting too close and interfering with voting.
Raphaelson and Anderson both said they were sitting quietly and observing voting, as is their right.
“His response (to our concern) was he was not going to change what was going on,” Raphaelson said. “He announced, ‘All of you are interfering with voting, I’ve already called State Police.’”
Raphaelson said State Police arrived and told her she had a right to be in the polling place, so she returned. But relations remained tense throughout the day.
According to state law, challengers have a right to “inspect the pollbooks, registration book or signature rosters to determine whether entries are being made in accordance with the Election Code.”
Poll challengers at several locations in Española said their function is not to challenge voter validity, but to ensure that everyone who wants to vote is allowed to exercise that right.
“It’s not that they don’t trust that things are going to go well,” Khalsa said. “It’s just that they want to make sure everyone gets to vote.”
Abortion Fight
A different kind of challenged greeted many voters in the Valley — the presence of in-your-face anti-abortion protesters.
Voters arriving to vote at Sombrillo Elementary had to pass by a picture of a beheaded aborted fetus that was in the back of a white pickup truck parked in the school’s lot. The sign said “Obama Health Care” and “Your Taxes at Work.”
“It’s kind of a harsh thing to do, but if that’s what it takes to let people know what’s going on in our society,” Michael Goodwin said, carrying a sign that said, ”Life the First Inalienable Right.”
Ernest Garduño, who carried a sign that said “Abortion Kills Children” said he was there on his own exercising his rights.
Voter Dolores Roybal did not appreciate the spectacle.
“It’s so gross,” she said. “What I object to is when my 6-year old grandson says to me, ‘Obama is making it possible for them to kill babies.’ I told him to have his dad bring him over to me so I could give him the right information. He heard this from other kids at school. It’s very misleading.”
Poll watchers raised a different red flag in Fairview, where an anti-Obama truck trailer was circling the parking lot with a large, graphic image of an allegedly aborted fetus. Española Police responded and the truck’s driver agreed to park on Zia Lane, just outside the polling-place gates.
The trailer showed up late in the evening at La Mesilla’s polling place, but it stayed at the far edge of the parking lot. Driver James Maloney, who called himself a “freelancer” not associated with any organization, said he asked himself which side God was on in this election, and it became an easy choice.
Rock Christian Fellowship Pastor Michael Naranjo and several of his parishioners registered as observers and challengers at the County Clerk’s office in Tierra Amarilla, and Secretary of State representative Kevin Fannin said he saw a number of Republican poll watchers throughout the County Tuesday.
Naranjo has been criticized the last month for politicizing the Rock by hosting regular anti-abortion demonstrations and displaying signs that link Democratic candidates to aborted babies. He has responded by saying his message is issue-focused, and politics are not his church’s main mission.
“We don’t suspect anything,” Naranjo said. “We just want to make sure everything’s going all right.”
Race
Liz Martinez, of Española, sat in front of a TV at Club Tropicana in Española Tuesday night watching election results roll in, but she was most curious to see which way New Mexicans would vote in the presidential race.
“After I heard on the radio McCain had taken San Juan County, I’m real anxious to see how New Mexico is doing,” Martinez said. “Obama seems to have a lot of support, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, people don’t always vote what they say.”
Martinez said an Obama victory would mean the most to her because of his stance on health care.
“New Mexico ranks high in poverty, low in health care,” Martinez said. “Hopefully he will be able to help us there.”
She said though electing a president who belongs to any racial minority is a significant step for the country, his race is a secondary issue to her.
“Sure, it’s going to make history, but just how significant it is, I haven’t given it much thought,” Martinez said. “I didn’t vote for him because he’s a minority, I voted for him because I believe in his policies.”
But for Dan Bigay, who sipped a beer yards away from Martinez, his eyes also glued to the television, race was possibly the single most defining issue in this election.
“One time, only one time, McCain said he had worked with Native Americans, and he stumbled when he said it,” Bigay said. “I think pretty much everybody who is not 100 percent pure white voted, or at least should’ve voted for Obama.”