New Mexico voting problems, continued

New Mexico is one of four states where the difference between the exit polls on Election Day and the published vote tally was also enough to make a difference between a win for John Kerry and a purported win for George W. Bush. Several newspapers, in the days following the election, reported problems with tallying votes around the state.

Now comes more indication of anomalies, to put it nicely.

In an article headed “N.M. leads nation in 'undervote',” two Scripps Howard reporters, James Brosnan and Thomas Hargrove, have discovered that “New Mexico, the state where President Bush beat John Kerry by the fewest votes, also was the state with the largest percentage of ballots that registered no preference for President, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study.”

The reporters found that 18,997 ballots cast in New Mexico seemingly indicated no presidential choice. Bush’s victory margin in New Mexico was 5,988 votes.

The entire article is linked at http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_state/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19863_3398082,00.html.

Ballots on which no vote for president is recorded are called “undervotes.” The Arizona Secretary of State is quoted as saying that undervotes are not a concern for her office.

“Kerry won four of the five counties with the highest number of undervotes -- Bernalillo, 5,806; Dona Ana, 1,817; McKinley, 1,600; and Santa Fe, 1,582.”

Bernalillo and Sandoval, two of the counties with high numbers of undervotes, were also among counties where other problems counting votes had already been noted.