Several weeks back, I put up the video that showed the press was covering the 2004 Voter Fraud problems. The problems that disgruntled former, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias never saw fit to get around to prosecuting. At least one blogger feels that seeing the evidence documented in the evening news is just not enough proof.
So, I’m wondering if this Albuquerque Tribune article from earlier this years might constitute proof that we have a voter fraud problem in New Mexico that would have warranted prosecution by Mr. Iglesias:
The new state elections director’s anecdote about personal brushes with voting fraud have riled a number of county clerks and left others scratching their heads.
At a meeting of county clerks in Santa Fe on Jan. 23, Daniel Ivey-Soto recounted several conversations he’d had over the years with people who told him they’d used other people’s identities to cast multiple votes, according to Ivey-Soto and others in attendance.
“I have been in conversations with people who have told me that, at various times, they’ve voted more than once on Election Day,” Ivey Soto said in an interview this week. “It happens. Apparently some people were shocked by that.”
Santa Fe County Clerk Valerie Espinoza, a Democrat, was one of them.
“To make those comments to a group of county clerks was really just unbelievable,” she said. “As a lawyer, he knew that voting fraud is a felony, and if you know someone who does that, why don’t you tell the attorney general?”
Otero County Clerk Robyn Silva, a Republican, echoed those comments.
Okay, obviously this is an issue that is offensive to both sides of the aisle – at least those that care about fair elections. Oh, and lest anyone say this was a joke that got out of hand:
Other clerks said they thought Ivey-Soto might have been joking.
He wasn’t.
Ivey-Soto, who took over as election chief three weeks ago despite having no experience running elections, said he recounted the conversations to make a serious point.
“In any system where people are allowed to express their opinion, you’re going to get a certain amount of fraud,” he said. “On `American Idol’ you get people who call in to vote 16 or 17 times.”
He said the conversations about voting fraud happened more than three years ago and suggested some may have been protected by attorney-client privilege.
Ok, am I the only one who finds it unnerving that the state’s election director believes a certain amount of fraud is ok? Folks, he actually compares New Mexico voter fraud to American Idol, where people are encouraged to vote as many times as possbile for their favorite candidate.
With attitudes like this running rampant in Democratic circles that control state elections, is it really any wonder that people were frustrated by the lack of action by Mr. Iglesias? A Republican U.S. Attorney in a Democratic state plagued by public corruption scandals and voter fraud should be a proactive prosecutor, not a guy who is so inactive (subscription) that New Mexicans don’t know what he does:
At his farewell news conference, Iglesias joked that he was often referred to as the “District Attorney” and that many New Mexicans were unfamiliar with what his position actually was.
From a public relations standpoint, the Department of Justice did not handle the firings of the U.S. Attorney’s well. And, in the case of David Iglesias, part of the problem is that they kept him in the job too long.