Guest blogged by David Edwards
On Monday September 5, lawyers representing presidential candidates David Cobb of the Green Party and Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian petitioned New Mexico’s highest court to order a recount of 2004 election.
This appeal to New Mexico’s Supreme Court came after refusals of the state Canvassing Board and Gov. Bill Richardson to conduct a recount as set forth under New Mexico election law.
“There is no more important issue than the purity of elections in this state,” Boyd told justices during an hour-long hearing. “And I will tell … the court that the elections are not pure.”
…
Cobb and Badnarik said the canvassing board had exceeded its powers in demanding more than $1 million in advance. The candidates filed a lawsuit, lost in district court and then appealed.
Boyd, the lawyer for Cobb and Badnarik, said the court should decide the case dispute because similar problems could occur in future elections if the canvassing board has “unfettered discretion” in deciding how much to charge candidates in advance for a recount.
If nothing else, the testimony should expose Richardson as a self-serving jerk, more interested in his political future than in cleaning up New Mexico’s election messes (use of plural deliberate).
Both parties have a lot to hide (and have exposed) in New Mexico, so this won’t be seen as partisan. Thank God for men like Cobb and Bednarik, who are proving that we can’t afford to leave our elections in the hands of partisans. Republicans are the more skilled thieves, but both parties would steal their grandmothers’ purses if they could.
The million bucks is a crime in itself
how can that be an open election that regular folks can’t get into and see?
Some transparency that is
We need international election monitors like they do for other countries’ elections. I’d also like to see a cap placed on how much each candidate can spend on his campaign (as a much smaller amount than what we see nowadays) and better yet, eliminate the concept of lobbyists and with the drastically pared-back campaign spending limits we could have the funding come out of tax revenue and be provided in an equal share to ALL candidates, so that we don’t see somebody with as good of ideas as Dennis Kucinich considered to be out of the running as soon as it starts because his funding is miniscule. We need to get rid of the paperless "voting" machines and have the process of tallying votes done by independent observers, not corporations with ties to the Repubs. Also we need to shitcan the electoral college system and replace it with the popular vote being the deciding one.
The principal LEADERS that I see fighting for fair elections in America are Cobb and Badnarik — I hope you all are going to vote for them and support them at every opportunity! Maybe Conyers and the Black Caucus should become Greens/Libertarians?????
David,
I couldn’t get the link to work. Here’s another.
N.M. court hears case of request for recount
Actually, I believe the hearing was on Aug. 29.
I still can’t believe that there isn’t more noise in Ohio after the latest two indictments (or whatever they were!!)
And now that we know the recounts in Ohio were fixed…
What can WE do to GUARANTEE the recounts in New Mexico won’t be fixed the same way?
or through some similar means?
We’ve gotta make sure we don’t get a repeat of the same bullshit… somehow…?!?!?!?
M3: You need several lawyers like Arnebeck in New Mexico immediately and a special prosecutor. The situation will be handled flawlessly. The fraud in Ohio was bad, in N.M it could be worse.
Doug