More Local

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
• Former Marine to serve two years in jail for killing Albuquerque robber
• Wilson-Pearce battle for U.S. Senate exemplifies party's disparity

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Albuquerque Old Town
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

SANTA FE — New Mexico's switch to a paper ballot voting system last year proved successful, with a majority of voters saying they were satisfied with their experience, a study by university researchers has found.

A report on the voting system change was prepared by researchers at the University of New Mexico, the California Institute of Technology and the University of Utah.

Voters in the 1st Congressional District were surveyed for part of the study. Researchers had observers in polling places in Bernalillo, Do¤a Ana and Santa Fe counties during the 2006 general election. Poll workers in those counties also were surveyed.

Lonna Atkeson, a political science professor at UNM, outlined the study's findings on Aug. 21 at a news conference with Gov. Bill Richardson, Secretary of State Mary Herrera and Santa Fe County Clerk Valerie Espinoza.

Richardson said the report validated New Mexico's move to paper ballots rather than continuing a patchwork system that used electronic voting machines in some areas of the state and paper ballots elsewhere.

Eight in 10 voters rated their "voting experience" with the paper ballot system as excellent or good, according to a survey of 471 voters in the 1st District. Voters filled out the survey on the Internet or returned it by mail.

For those who rated their voting experience as fair or poor, roughly a third of them cited paper ballots as the reason for their dissatisfaction and nearly one in three complained of long waits at polling places.

The survey found that almost one in three voters rated their experience last year as more negative than when they voted before in New Mexico.

Under a law enacted last, all 33 counties in New Mexico switched to a single paper ballot system. Under the system, voters manually mark ballots and then feed them into electronic optical scanner machine, which tabulates the votes.

The report recommended several steps to improve the voting system, including a better ballot design and more voter education. A number of voters, according to the study, complained that it took longer to vote with the paper ballots than with electronic voting machines and others had problems trying to cast straight party votes.