Photo by Craig Fritztribune

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Precinct 603 voter Jim Bodley (left) asks Dan Gutierrez of the Bernalillo County Bureau of Elections why only 150 ballots were delivered to the polling place and who was responsible for the delivery size. Gutierrez brought additional ballots to Good Shepherd of the Valley Church in the predominantly Republican Northeast Heights precinct shortly after 9:45 a.m., 45 minutes after poll workers exhausted their original allotment.

Photo by Craig Fritz Tribune

Tribune

Larry and Karen Turner look over a sample ballot while waiting for additional ballots to arrive at Good Shepherd of the Valley Church, where Precinct 603 votes. The precinct has more than 2,000 voters, but received just 150 ballots for today's election.

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Problems this morning at two Bernalillo County polling places have been at least temporarily resolved, but more precincts could run out of ballots tonight, said Jaime Diaz, Bureau of Elections chief for the county.

This morning precincts 603 and 57 each got 150 ballots "which was under the numbers they should have received," Diaz said.

Both precincts have close to 2,000 registered voters, he said. Precinct 603 is at Church of the Good Shepherd, 7834 Tennyson St. N.E. and Precinct 57 is at Painted Sky Elementary School, 8101 Gavin Dr. N.W.

The Bernalillo County Clerk's Office got more ballots to those locations after it became aware of the problem, but not before a delay, Diaz said.

"We do understand there was a time of about 30 minutes when there were no paper ballots," Diaz said.

The office was supposed to get 105 percent of the ballots it needed, but only got between 63 percent and 75 percent of them from the Secretary of State's Office, Diaz said.

"I can't speak for any other county, but for Bernalillo County, we were not involved in the ballot order process" that led to the shortage, he said.

The clerk's office has requested more ballots, but suspects three or four precincts could run short this evening, Diaz said.

U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson and an attorney for the state Republican Party said at least two heavily Republican precincts in the Northeast Heights received only a fraction of the paper ballots needed, a move they called a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise GOP voters.

A spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office said it appeared to be a numerical error in which a zero was dropped. Two precincts that should have received 1,500 and 1,700 ballots, respectively, instead got 150 and 170.

"The (Bernalillo) county clerk should have checked it when they accepted the order," said Ray Baray of the Secretary of State's Office.

The GOP's announcement, combined with other claims of problems at the polls this morning, could foreshadow a protracted legal battle over the results of today's election.

"The county clerk has taken repeated steps to disenfranchise Republican voters," said Pat Rogers, an Albuquerque attorney representing state Republicans, who was speaking from the Courtyard Marriott hotel near Jefferson Street.

Diaz acknowledged that a violation of federal law might have occurred from the ballot shortage.

"We would assume there was some infraction," Diaz said.

Adding poll hours for voters to come back and cast their ballots might be possible, but would probably require "judicial action," Diaz said.

John Wertheim, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said Republican concerns about the problems are "a very worried Heather Wilson campaign crying wolf," because the issues were resolved quickly.

"This is something to relax about," Wertheim said.

Wilson, who has served in Congress since 1998, is in the middle of one of the closest political campaigns of her career as she battles Democratic state Attorney General Patricia Madrid.

Wilson said she visited Precinct 603 in the Northeast Heights this morning when, at 8:55 a.m., she said voters left the property claiming the polling place was out of ballots.

Wilson said the precinct, which has 2,474 registered voters, received only 150 paper ballots. The precinct, she said, is in a heavily Republican area where 67 percent of the voters supported her in the last election.

Precinct worker Linda Ransom confirmed that the precinct had received only 150 ballots, and ran out shortly before 9 a.m.

Precinct 602, located in the same church, also received 150 ballots, Wilson's campaign said.

Wilson said calls to the County Clerks's Office prompted a delivery of 250 more ballots to Precinct 603. But she said poll workers were told they would have to continually ask for more ballots throughout the day.

On top of that, Wilson claimed voters who were turned away were not given provisional ballots - typically given to registered voters whose names don't show up on a precinct's voter rolls. Voters turned away at the polls must receive provisional ballots under federal law.

Wilson said her campaign was working this morning to contact as many of the turned-away voters as possible. At a news conference this morning, she showed 2,500 pieces of copy paper that stood about 18 inches high representing the registered voters of Precinct 603. Next to it was a pile of 150 pieces an inch or so high - a symbol of the discrepancy in ballots at the poll she visited.

"They're not even prepared to comply with federal law," said an indignant Wilson, dressed casually in khaki pants and a white polo shirt with "U.S. House of Representatives" embroidered on the front.

"I am demanding that sufficient ballots be immediately delivered," she said. "I am demanding that no one be turned away from their voting place."

Said Rogers: "Someone is out to make it very difficult for Republican voters."

Rogers, though, said heading to court to challenge the balloting process should be a "last resort."

"But we would resort to the last resort if it's the only way to get people to do their federal duty," Rogers said.

Still, he added he doesn't feel confident that the problems are over.

"I heard nothing that gives me any confidence that people who line up today to vote will have a ballot," he said after a 1:30 p.m. news conference held by Diaz.

Bernalillo County spokeswoman Liz Hamm said she couldn't immediately address allegations by the Republicans about voter disenfranchisement.

At the news conference Diaz also said a reporter from The Albuquerque Tribune interfered with the voting process at Precinct 57 on the West Side. County Clerk Mary Herrera later corrected that information, saying the complaint instead originated from Precinct 603 in the Northeast Heights, Hamm said.

"We have found and we are waiting on the (Bernalillo County) District Attorney that a reporter from The Albuquerque Tribune was encouraging voters to leave and file a complaint," Diaz said.

Diaz didn't identify the reporter.

Michael Fricke, an assistant county district attorney on call today to handle election complaints, said he hadn't received a complaint regarding a Tribune reporter.

"We'll investigate it, but we'll wait to hear more from the district attorney to see what, if any, action should be taken," said Phill Casaus, editor of The Tribune.

The ballot shortage wasn't the only glitch at Albuquerque polling places this morning.

Even as the last TV ads from Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron touted the ease of voting early this morning, Joe Chavez said it was anything but easy at Precinct 435 in the Northeast Heights.

He arrived half an hour early at McKinley Middle School, but still had to wait in line, he said.

Then the poll workers said his state-issued voter-ID card wasn't sufficient to get a ballot. Chavez said the clerk told him he needed photo ID.

Chavez stood his ground. "I told her, `Hey, the law doesn't require picture ID.' She kind of looked at me and told me I had to."

He had a photo in his pocket, Chavez said, but held firm.

The clerks said every voter needed photo ID; Chavez pointed to their own instructions that said only certain voters whose names were marked on the registration list needed photo ID.

He showed them his name on the roster, he said, which matched his voter-ID card.

He also mentioned state law permits a person to vote simply by reciting their name and last four digits of their Social Security number. Even a water-utility bill is valid ID, he said.

No go. People behind him in line were not happy, he said.

"I could've just reached in my wallet and given them my driver's license," Chavez said. "But it's not required in this state. They made it very difficult."

The poll manager finally stepped in and allowed him to vote, he said.

"Had it been someone older or less educated, I think they would've been intimidated and left, not so much because of the people at the desk but the people behind them in line," Chavez said. "It was getting ugly."

Frankie Ewing and her husband arrived early at Precinct 216, at Encino House near Spruce Park in the University of New Mexico area.

She was the first person to turn in completed ballot, but the reader machine wouldn't take it, she said.

After numerous failed attempts to get the machines to read her ballot and that of her husband, poll workers said to slip the ballot into a locked box.

"It makes us a little anxious that things are not going right," Ewing said this morning. She was nervous that her vote might not be counted, she said.

"The problem is not people impersonating voters" or using fake ID to get a ballot, she said. "The problem is they don't count all these votes."

Ewing said she's already convinced that some absentee ballots are never counted, which is why she waits until Election Day to cast her vote.

It only took about 10 minutes to fill out the new ballot, she said. But if a voter makes an error, they're supposed to request a new ballot.

"People make errors all the time," Ewing said. "It could be a zoo."

Overall, however, she prefers paper ballots to electronic voting, because of the paper trail.