Wednesday, November 30, 2022It's Official: State Certifies 2022 Election Results; No Protests Or Election Denying Activity As Canvassing Board Sends Results To The History Books
There were no election deniers protesting outside at Tuesday's meeting of the Board comprised of Gov. Lujan Grisham, Sec. of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and NM Supreme Court Chief Justice Shannon Bacon. Nor were there any disruptions as the trio did their business inside the Capitol. (Complete official 2022 election results here.) The certification of the November 8 results went off without a hitch at the largely ceremonial session but there was much hard work and due diligence brought to bear before the Board approved the results for the history books. From the SOS: The “canvass" is the process of reconciling and confirming the accuracy of the election results and reporting those results to the county and then to the state. The State Canvass Board meeting comes after all thirty-three New Mexico counties canvassed their own results and had those results certified at the county-level by county boards of canvass. The Secretary of State’s office then canvassed the county results as an additional check to ensure the accuracy of the results. An independent audit of the results was also performed by Santa Fe-based CPA firm Zlotnick & Sandoval and no discrepancies were found. Santa Fe County Clerk Katherine Clark adds:
The results we upload on election night are the unofficial results and the canvass process at the local and state level with auditor oversight is a triple check on the ballots cast during every election. The canvass process at each level checks every tabulator tape, every provisional and hand tally ballot to ensure that the results are accurate. The auditing firm randomly selected precincts last week for counties across the state to recheck the closest statewide races, thus proving the veracity of the tabulated results. The formula for randomization and number of precincts ensures robust statistical power. This is a further step beyond canvass that ensures results are accurate in one of the best if not the best system in the country. UNSETTLED PAST Clerk Clark is correct that the state election system has proven to be resilient and one of the "best" in the nation thanks to several generations of election officials, state legislators and governors. Students of La Politica well know it wasn't always that way. Bitter accusations of voter fraud and bad ballot counting haunted numerous statewide elections, including the US Senate elections of 1934 and 1952 featuring Democrat Dennis Chavez (1935-'62). In the early part of this century it was new computer technology--not nefarious activity--that nearly destroyed confidence in the Bernalillo County voting process. And in 2000, the Dona Ana County Clerk's office was in the national spotlight over their inability to properly track ballots in the hotly contested presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush. (Gore ended up carrying the state by 366 votes.) We've come a long way. RECOUNT TIME Because of their closeness two state House races were ordered by the Board to undergo automatic recounts. They are District 32 in the SW where Democrat Candie Sweetser of Deming is behind Republican Jenifer Jones by 36 votes and in District 68 in the NW ABQ metro where Democrat Charlotte Little leads Republican Robert Moss by 36 votes. Those are close but it is very rare for margins of those sizes to be changed during a recount. If that is the case the state House will start its business in January with a 45 to 25 Democratic majority. The Canvassing Board will meet December 13 to certify the final outcome of those contests.
FINAL GUV NUMBERS  In 2020 Ronchetti ran against Democrat Ben Ray Lujan for an open US Senate seat. In that race Ronchetti lost by 6.1 percent or 51.7% to 45.6% with a Libertarian getting 2.6 percent. The MLG '22 win was solid but not overwhelming and historically it was close. In fact, it was the closest NM governor contest since 1978 when Democrat Bruce King edged out Republican Joe Skeen by a mere 1.1 percent. In 2010 Susana Martinez defeated Democrat Diane Denish by 6.8 percent. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 |
|
