A criticism is that Richardson stopped the recount in 2004 when New Mexico had the highest under vote in the country under suspicious circumstances. A corollary to this criticism is that he did this to gain some sort of advantage in the 2008 election by keeping Kerry from winning NM. Richardson did not stop the recount, but he, the rest of the NM election commission, and the courts required the Green and Libertarian parties to put up a bond covering the cost of the recount before it proceeded. Kerry and the Democratic party did not request a recount in New Mexico.


The election in New Mexico resulted in a large number of under votes for president in 2004. The percentage was less than in 2000 but was still the highest in the nation (3%). Analysis of the voting records noted that there were higher numbers of under votes on the electronic push button type voting machines. The touch screen machines had the second highest under vote and the optical scan machines had the least (LINK). The highest numbers occurred in precincts where the population was predominantly Native American or Hispanic. It was also reported by some that there was an extraordinary high number of phantom votes where the number of votes exceeded the number of voters in a precinct.

On November 29th, after Kerry had conceded but was still questioning the Ohio vote total, the Green and Libertarian party petitioned for a recount of the NM election. Neither the Kerry campaign nor the Democratic Party was requesting the recount of New Mexico. If the recount showed anything that would change the election, New Mexico would have to pay for it. If it did not change the election in any way, the petitioners would have to pay for it. On December 13th the lawyer for the Green and Libertarian parties told the AP, "money is no object." (LINK) The Democratic Governor Bill Richardson and Democratic Secretary of State required the Green and Libertarian Parties to put up the entire cost of the recount as a bond totaling 1.4 million on December 15th (LINK). The Green and Libertarian parties refused to put up that amount arguing instead that a deposit of about $114,000 was all that was needed. A NM court ruled in favor of the State on December 17th. The Greens and Libertarians appealed but the New Mexico Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal. 0n January 14th, the New Mexico Secretary of State authorized election officials to begin clearing the electronic voting machines (Link to Green Party on New Mexico Recount).

One of the flaws in the push button electronic voting machines was that if you select a political party at when you begin to cast your vote, the machine would automatically select all candidates in that party. If you then proceeded to additionally push a button for a particular race, the machine would then deselect the candidate for that race if they are of the same party (LINK). Because the enormous problems with the vote, Bill Richardson shepherded through bill that required a paper ballot with an auditable paper trail along with random audits to assure accuracy (LINK). The result in the 2006 election was a reasonable number of under votes (LINK).

The reason that our party focused on Ohio instead of New Mexico is there is little evidence that a recount would have resulted in a change in the presidential election. If you poll an electronic voting machine it is going to give you the same number each time. The number of under votes on countable paper ballots was not enough to turn the election to Kerry and were within normal percentages for elections. Even if Kerry did somehow come out on top in a recount in New Mexico, the five electoral votes from the state (LINK) were not enough to overcome the 20 electoral votes Kerry lost in Ohio where there was greater evidence of actual fraud by Shrub Inc (LINK). I don't see how a recount of New Mexico could have helped Kerry. It would have, however, given a lot of publicity to the Green and Libertarian Parties.

The Secretary of State in New Mexico is an elected position and is in charge of elections. The Democratic Secretary of State had held that position since 1996 and probably should shoulder most of the responsibility for the flawed vote in 2004. Bill Richardson was first elected Governor in 2002 and focused his first years on tax and education reform.

The tinfoil hat theory that Richardson threw the New Mexico election to keep Kerry out of the race so he would have a better chance in 2008 doesn't make sense given that there were likely not enough countable paper ballots with an under vote to make up the 6000 vote margin with Shrub Inc. Also, the five NM electoral votes did not make a difference in the race. Some have claimed that if New Mexico had a recount and it showed Kerry won, it would have forced Ohio to do the same. However, wouldn't a recount showing a Kerry loss in NM made it harder to force a recount in Ohio? Ironically, because of Shrub Inc's US attorney firing scandal, we find that Republicans were accusing Democrats of voter fraud in NM (LINK).

Since New Mexico's vote total wouldn't have made a difference, if Bill Richardson had thought Kerry would have won a recount, it would have made more sense for him to push it through. Bill would have been declared a hero, giving him a major boost for 2008 instead of a point of attack by supporters of opponents. Conversely, a loss of the recount by Kerry would have further fueled conspiracy theories about Richardson and hurt Kerry's chances for a possible recount in Ohio. Bill Richardson, being a pretty savvy politician, probably considered this, realized the chance of Kerry wining NM recount was slim to none, and didn't push for the recount.