Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Roosevelt citizens plan to audit ballots

PORTALES — A group of Roosevelt County citizens, most noting their Republican party affiliation, plan on auditing county ballots for the 2020 presidential election next Wednesday.  

The matter came up during the “public requests” portion of Monday’s Roosevelt County Commission meeting.  

Person after person came to the speaker’s podium at the session to tell commissioners of the lack of confidence that they and their friends have in voting in New Mexico.  

Speakers praised the work of Roosevelt County Clerk Mandi Park and county commissioners but not the state hierarchy.  

Shawna Carter addressed the commissioners expressing her concern over the lack of voter turnout in the June 7 primary. Carter attributed the low turnout because she said she knew of “many people who would not vote again until we have voter security.”  

Carter alleged that New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver had said the state’s voting machines are “not secure.”  

Carter urged commissioners to get rid of voting machines manufactured by the Dominion Company and go back to paper ballots as Otero County had recently done.  

“We’ve lost faith in our voting system,” said Shonnie Standifer. She alleged that Dominion voting machines caused the downfall of the South American country Venezuela. 

Beverly Bennett was another person who expressed a lack of confidence in Roosevelt County’s voting system.

“Our election system is broken,” Bennett said. 

She went on to describe how her grown children had moved from New Mexico to Texas and still received absentee ballots from New Mexico giving opportunity for voter fraud. 

Park said the audit will happen in a room in the courthouse basement at 9 a.m. next Wednesday. She added county resident Standifer submitted the Inspection of Public Records Act request to conduct the audit on behalf of Erin Clements. No organization was listed on the request.

Clements is connected to a company called “EchoMail” that had interest in the Otero County audit as well as the Maricopa County audit of the 2020 election in Arizona.

Park said because the county will not be providing the citizen auditors with paper or digital files there is no cost to taxpayers. County personnel will be present while the citizen auditors, using their own scanner, scan images of the ballots to compare to tapes they recorded earlier.

Also at Monday’s commission session, County Manager Amber Hamilton delivered her state of the county address.  

One of the high points was Hamilton noting the county received an AA3 rating from Moody’s Investors Service, an improvement from an A3 rating in 2015.  

County Detention Center Administrator Shayla Ramsey brought a zucchini squash to the commission meeting to demonstrate the success of the jail’s garden.  

Renovations to the courthouse were addressed by John Layman from NCA Architects of Albuquerque.  

Layman spoke of priorities. The first priority is fixing leaks in the basement, which were evident during heavy rains. Next is fixing the doors at the courthouse entryways and vestibules. Brickwork is the third priority and cast stone repair is fourth.  

Cost for repairs is estimated at $635,746. Layman noted estimates change due to rapid inflation.  

Roosevelt County Sheriff Malin Parker appeared before commissioners requesting the sheriff’s department be allowed to have its own dispatcher.  

Parker said the department having its own dispatcher works well for Curry County. The measure passed unanimously.  

Commissioners approved the canvass of the June 7 primary election where 2,376 eligible voters cast ballots, representing a voter turnout of 22.25%.  

During discussion before approving the canvass, District 4 Commissioner Tina Dixon said she had received phone calls, email and texts asking for commissioners to not approve the canvass until after the citizen’s audit of June 22.  

There was discussion about holding off on approving the canvass but Park pointed out the state requires the canvass be approved by June 20.