Amos Baca has a new baby boy. In 17 years and 11 months, little Degan will be old enough to vote. If everything goes the way state election officials hope, Degan may cast the same type of paper ballot in 2024 that his father is making ready for the 2006 general election.

Baca is a voting-machine supervisor in the Secretary of State's Office. He is one of a handful of people who can operate and troubleshoot the vote tabulators the state plans to use in November, when the transition is made from electronic and mechanical voting machines to paper ballots. This new system will allow for a manual recount of paper-ballot records and an electronic re-tabulation if a recount becomes necessary.

The first shipment of new tabulators arrived last week. They are sitting in a secure warehouse in Rio Rancho at an undisclosed location. Hundreds of poll workers will soon receive training on the ES&S M100 and M650. The M100 will be used at the precinct level throughout the state. The M650 will be used at election central in each county to scan early and absentee ballots at a rate of 300 per minute.

Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron has a long-term interest in how well the new system works.

"I'm a public servant. I intend to stay in that capacity, either appointed or elected, and am looking forward to the 2008 elections," Vigil-Giron said.

Brian Phillips is the president of SysTest Labs, a Colorado-based independent quality-assurance and software-testing company, which makes sure that the electronic voting equipment states use meets federal voting standards.

"All of the electronic voting equipment we have tested at SysTest Labs has been found to be accurate, reliable and secure. We have not found evidence of anything that would lead us to believe that these machines (ES&S M100 and M650) are not reliable pieces of electronic voting equipment," Phillips said.

"Human error has been the biggest issue in previous election-night glitches," Vigil-Giron said. Mistakes made by inexperienced and substitute poll workers include not plugging the machines into an electrical outlet, according to Vigil-Giron.

"I have to accept responsibility for some of the problems that have occurred, because I am the chief election officer," Vigil-Giron added.

"In November, 2006, for the first time in state history, we're going to have uniform voting procedures in every county at the polling place throughout the state, including the same kinds of machines," Vigil-Giron reassured me.

Vigil-Giron's last day in office is December 31. I asked her what she'll be doing at midnight on New Year's Eve.

"I like my beauty rest, so I plan to either be fast asleep or celebrating with everybody else the incoming of a fabulous new year," she said. That would be 2007, 12 months before the heavy primary fighting begins for a U.S. Senate seat or the governorship.

Actually, Amos has two new babies on his hands: Degan and the infant candidacy of Rebecca Vigil-Giron for a much higher office.

Bullington is a senior policy adviser for the Brownstein, Hyatt and Farber law firm. He welcomes comments at jdbullington@gmail.com