Friday, October 30, 2020Counting All Those Early Votes; Not A Problem Says State Election Expert, Plus: Sen. Candelaria Video Shocker: Berates Cops And Kicks Them Out Of House; Threatens To Call Governor; Election Impact Weighed; Comes With Apology ABQ Dem State Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto, technical assistant provider for the state's county clerks and author of much election legislation, updates our understanding of how this large scale counting will go down: First, he says, in-person early votes at the convenience centers and elsewhere are registered (and tabulated) when the voter inserts their completed paper ballot into the voting machine. Tens of thousands of such votes from the state's 33 counties will be ready to be electronically counted quickly Election Night and usually are reported within a half hour of the closing of the polls at 7 p.m. As for all those absentee ballots mailed in (over 300,000) and the fear that we will have incomplete results Election Night because of slow counting, Ivey-Soto says that fear is unfounded: A county that receives 10,000 or more absentee ballot requests (think Bernalillo, Dona Ana and Santa Fe) can begin processing them as early as October 20. This ensures the clerks are able to keep pace. As with the in-person voting, these ballots are fed into the voting machines. When the polls close they are tallied by computer and the results released. The absentees that remain uncounted will be a very small percentage of the total. They will be ballots mainly received very close to the election. While the law provides that the absentee count stop at 11 p.m. to ensure those counting the ballots are not exhausted, the vast majority of absentees will have been counted and released by then. As for votes cast on Election Day, the computer cartridges with those votes are physically delivered to a site selected by the individual county clerks and tabulated. Most of the Election Day votes in the large counties are usually counted by 11 p.m and earlier in the smaller counties. Early voting is convenient and the public has responded warmly to its expansion. One side effect that saddens the political junkies is its impact on delivering any surprises. There are now so many early votes that when they are posted early in the evening very few races are left undecided. Forward thinking by present and past state leadership has prepared us for timely vote counting--even in a pandemic. FINAL WORDS The US senate candidates are coming with their final wave of TV. R Mark Ronchetti released one of his final TV spots, saying: (It's) my vision for more jobs, lower healthcare costs, & safe streets, or @BenRayLujan ’s support of higher taxes, ending private health insurance, & releasing violent criminals. I will always fight for the people of New Mexico. This is Dem Ben Ray Lujan's final TV ad in which he says, "I will always put you and your family first." Lujan also came with an "election memo" about his candidacy laying out why he thinks he deserves the senate seat. NMGOP Chairman Steve Pearce is also making his final pitch to voters and does it in his podcast. JACOB'S FOLLY  Sen. Candelaria came with a statement of apology following release of the video and this report. That statement is below. Sen. Jacob Candelaria berated state cops, threatened to call Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on them, and ordered them to leave his apartment when he didn't like what they had to say about an allegedly threatening phone message Candelaria received over the weekend, the State Police lapel camera of the call shows.
"Please don't talk down to me because I will get the governor, on the phone, or whoever, because I don't understand why this is my problem," Candelaria told the three state police officers who came to his Albuquerque apartment to get more information about the alleged threat. During the three-minute video, he repeatedly told the cops that he was a state senator and that he and his husband were going to leave town because they didn't feel safe after the phone call.
"You may not have respect for me, but I am a member of the Senate," Candelaria told the officers. "I took an oath, to this day, and I don't deserve to have my life threatened." Candelaria complained to the officers that he had reported the threat about 13 hours earlier and was disappointed that it took so long for officers to show up. "I'm Senator Jacob Candeleria. I received a death threat last night at two o'clock in the morning," Candeleria told the officers. "So I got a death threat. My husband and I are leaving the city of Albuquerque right now because we don't feel safe. I don't know what it's going to take. It's been thirteen hours, guys, thirteen hours." At one point an officer asked Candeleria to sit down. Candelaria replied:
"No. I'm a senator. This senator is getting ready and leaving. I was told that you were coming to help us leave town. So Senator Candelaria and his husband are leaving their home. If you want to watch us while we get in our car and go out and tell them to protect our lives." Candelaria originally welcomed the officers into his home, but he got angry when the officers said they were working on finding the man who made the alleged threat.
Candelaria played the voice message for the officers. It said, in part: "You don't know what it means to be an American. You're a stupid motherfucker, and we're going to get you out one way or another. Fuck you."
After playing the message for the officers, Candelaria asked them, "So is that a threat gentlemen?"
When an officer replied, "Sir, that's how it can be interpreted," Candelaria kicked them out of his house.
"Leave my house. You are asked to leave," Candelaria said. You don't have a warrant. You don't have the authority to be here. Get out."
Candelaria may have dodged the immediate political consequences of a possible defeat or close race at the polls Tuesday, but his standing in the Senate is going to take a hit, according to Alligators weighing the impact. One of them comes with this: This tape will take the heat off Senate Majority Leader Wirth who Candelaria has clashed with. Wirth can now ignore Candelaria whose chances to chair the Senate Finance Committee have gone up in smoke. Maybe if Candelaria apologized right away and explained his behavior it might help, but it's always difficult to reverse such a damaging image. MLG could be asked to weigh in on Candelaria's comments threatening to call her and report the responding officers. That will be a quick Operation Separation, for sure. And Republican businessman Lardizabal will do all he can, one supposes, to push out Candelaria's embarrassing behavior between now and Tuesday. Candelaria, who has a reputation as one of the brightest state senators, often diving into complex legislation, is also the first openly gay Senator and has a following in the LGBQT community. An ABQ native, attorney and graduate of Princeton University, he was one of the youngest state senators when he was first elected in 2012. Today he is only 33 but unless he can somehow dig himself out of this hole his political career could be a goner. Ironically, Candelaria has been one of the leading legislative advocates for mandating video lapel cameras for all state law enforcement agencies. CANDELARIA APOLOGIZES Between midnight and 1 a.m. on October 25, my family received three anonymous phone calls at our home in quick succession, threatening violence against my family and me because of my political views, my race, and my sexual orientation. I reported the calls to law enforcement immediately.
We deemed one of the callers, who threatened to “take” me “out one way or another,” to be quite serious.
As it turns out, at about 10:00 am, a cursory background check done by my law firm’s private investigator yielded strong evidence that the caller who made the most direct threat had a history of violence and an open warrant for his arrest. My private investigator, who is a former member of the United States Secret Service, advised us at that time that the threat level was escalated and that the caller needed to be found, without delay.
I immediately again called the police because I was terrified for the safety of my new husband and myself. If you’ve felt that visceral fear for your family, I am so sorry because I do not wish that upon anyone. In the hours that followed, I was not going to stop until my family was safe. I would and will always do anything to protect the man I love. When the state police arrived later that afternoon, I simply did not treat the officers who came to our house with the necessary respect or decorum.
Let me be clear, I was wrong to redirect the terror and frustration we were experiencing on those individual officers.
I apologize fully and unequivocally to each of the officers who were carrying out their duties professionally and who put their safety on the line every day. As I did later that same night, I thank them for their ongoing committed service to this state.
Moving forward, we all need to hold those accountable who are quick to resort to violence toward those who have differing political views, or on the basis of their race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Our state, nor our country, can progress without a commitment to civil discourse. I commit here and now to actively doing my part. GOP REACTS State Republicans came with this reaction to the Candelaria video: This is the kind of hypocritical behavior that makes voters lose faith in their elected leaders, who are supposed to serve them—not serve themselves,” said Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce. “All law enforcers must receive respect—period. They are here to serve and protect. No one is above the law in New Mexico. Senator Candeleria’s childish and self-important behavior is unbecoming of the New Mexico Senate—a body meant to be mature and deliberative. He doesn’t deserve the honor of serving in any office of public trust. Senator Candeleria doesn’t deserve your vote on Tuesday to return to the Roundhouse.” This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.
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