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Saturday, 25 July 2009 18:41
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Like most New Mexicans, I have felt a great disconnect between our people and our government for many years. Nationally, with a Republican President and a Republican held Congress for six years, we saw government grow larger, and an obscene amount of pork barrel spending. Last year, both candidates promised to cut the pork. Wanting change, we elected a Democratic President and a Democratic held Congress, and within the first 30 days, we see government growing exponentially and pork barrel spending promises to reach an all time high. Campaign promises broken, soon forgotten. Why does our government continue to disregard the needs and wants of our people? A friend of mine, State Representative Dianne Hamilton, explained to me what she has seen after serving ten years in the New Mexico House. She told me that one party rule makes it much easier for lawmakers to grow distant from the electorate because they aren’t worried about losing their seats. In New Mexico, the Democratic Party has held a majority of seats in our legislature since the 1930s. With the Democratic sweep nationwide in this last election, lawmakers at all levels in the majority party see their election to office as a mandate and feel little need for further input from voters in establishing their agenda. In other states, it is the Republican Party that holds this kind of power. It’s not particularly a partisan thing, nor are the people who participate evil---- it’s just the way our system is set up. This simple explanation offered with no malice changed the way I look at our nation, our state, and our community. I realized that our lawmakers need to understand that their successful bid for office does not give them carte blanche to do as they like. They fail to remember they were elected to serve the people. It is the obligation of the people they govern to constantly monitor legislation and to speak out when citizen rights are threatened. We need to do due diligence of the voting process. Unfortunately, it is costly, time consuming and dominated by special interest groups. The average citizen can soon feel overwhelmed. But we must to surrender our rights. I formed Hispanos Unidos in September 2008, with this simple goal in mind. Since then, we have all seen government using the theme “change” as a blank check to legislate an agenda that is not in the best interest of the electorate. Recently, a group of citizens rose up and were quite loud in their opposition to domestic partnerships, a precursor to gay marriage, and successfully had the bill defeated in the New Mexico Senate. Although Hispanos Unidos has not been involved in the anti-gay marriage movement in New Mexico, the efforts of these individuals serve as an example to us all, showcasing the impact citizen participation can have on state government. Our focus has been on the most fundamental right we hold—the right to fair elections. As most residents of Dona Ana County know, our election system is broken in New Mexico, and we have been fighting for legislation to clean it up. A group of bi-partisan volunteers have found a shocking amount of evidence of fraud in Dona Ana County during the 2008 General Election. Among their findings were: • Dead people had their votes count. • Living people did not have their votes count • 53% of absentee voters were disenfranchised • People lost their vote because someone else had voted using their name When I became aware of their findings, I called Rep. Dianne Hamilton and asked her if she would meet with these people and listen to what they found. Dianne traveled 100 miles from Silver City to meet with us, and after she was presented with thousands of pages of documentation of fraud, she was asked to carry a bill requiring photo ID at the polls. She agreed. Representative Hamilton appeared to be the best choice to carry the bill, as she had no dog in this fight. She has run unopposed in all primary and general elections since 2002. She has no axe to grind with our county clerk, and no political motivation to participate, as no one in Dona Ana County can vote for her. Dianne agreed to carry a Photo Voter ID bill simply because it was the right thing to do. She did add a caveat to her bill that called for the New Mexico Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a photo ID card free of charge to citizens who had no driver’s license and couldn’t afford the $10 fee for a photo ID. This concern for the underprivileged made her bill the most compassionate call for election reform to date in our legislature. It brought to light the importance of ensuring ALL New Mexicans can vote, and ONLY New Mexicans can vote in our elections. I joined many citizens, including former Democrat Dona Ana County Clerk, Joe Martinez, to testify in favor of House Bill 591 requiring photo ID at the polls before the House Voters and Elections Committee. Perhaps I am naïve, but I was shocked when committee members dismissed the evidence generated through thousands of hours of volunteer work, saying that no fraud occurred in the 2008 General Election. Their rationale was that if fraud had occurred, someone would have been prosecuted. They tabled the Photo ID bill, thereby effectively killing it. They never explained how they expected a district attorney to track down individuals who most likely were no longer in the state, to file charges against them. It is an impossible task, and would require a tremendous amount of money to attempt. Additionally, voter fraud is only a fourth degree felony in New Mexico, so little would happen except a slap on the wrist. The next week, I traveled to Santa Fe again to witness the same committee approve a bill that would allow people to register during the early voting period WITHOUT A PHOTO ID, and then turn around and vote two minutes later. Among acceptable identification is a utility bill or a bank statement. This gives an open invitation to nefarious political groups outside of New Mexico to produce stacks of counterfeit paper documents and send their people to New Mexico to cast fraudulent votes. And they will. Only this time, it would be impossible to detect such fraud after an election cycle. The bill flew through the committee and was approved by the New Mexico House the next day, pretty much by a straight party line vote—Democrats in favor, Republicans against. This is truly a non-partisan issue, but I remembered what Dianne Hamilton had told me earlier---a monopoly of power drives lawmakers farther away from the electorate. I certainly saw this with my own eyes during the past weeks. Our only hope to keep this legislation from becoming law is to stop it in the Senate. I hope all citizens will join us in our fight to keep our elections from becoming even more corrupt than they are. A recent poll shows 82% of our citizens want photo identification at the polls. Hispanos Unidos is not only non-partisan; we do not discriminate along ethnic lines. We believe that the Hispanic culture in New Mexico has existed for so long, that our values have become simply New Mexican values. I have never met a member of any party, race, or ethnic group who does not hold election transparency to be a sacred component of our democracy. We encourage all New Mexicans to join us and sign up on this website for legislative updates regarding issues that affect citizen rights. We are running commercials on cable television in New Mexico as much as we can, explaining the voter issues currently considered by our lawmakers. We produce these commercials on a computer in my living room, with a $30 microphone. This is truly a grassroots movement. With no production overhead, every penny we raise goes to buying ad time. We are not rich people, but with the help of other citizens, we are making a difference, often just $20 at a time. No contribution is too small. $3 runs an ad once statewide on Animal Planet. One hundred dollars gives us one day coverage in Las Cruces; one thousand dollars gives us a full day’s broadcast statewide. We urgently need to reach as many people as possible. We support: • Tougher penalties for voter fraud • Photo ID at the polls • Amending the state constitution to allow for referendum—taking issues like tax increases, voter laws, social issues, etc. to the people to vote on during elections • Web cam or television coverage of all legislative committee meetings All these initiatives empower the people. Call your senator. Get involved in this fight. If we don’t speak now, our voices may be silenced forever. Sincerely, Victor Contreras Chairman |
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| Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 September 2009 06:22 | |