Preliminary results: Shafer elected sheriff, Mitchell voted out

link Preliminary election winners include Russell Shafer (left), County Sheriff; Franklin McCasland, District 3 County Commissioner and Vic Baum, County Assessor.

QCS Managing Editor

Preliminary results show that Quay County voters Tuesday elected Russell Shafer to be Sheriff of Quay County for the next four years and voted to oust Tenth Judicial District Judge Albert Mitchell.

Voter turnout was 2,731, or 45 percent of eligible voters, Chief Deputy County Clerk Ellen White said. White said the turnout was about average for a mid-term election.

“I look forward to taking office,” Shafer said. “I look forward to working with the deputies.”

Shafer won by exactly 100 votes in the unofficial count Monday—1,379 votes to Wallace’s 1279, a margin of 3 percent of the 2,658 votes cast in the race.

Shafer also said he wanted to thank “all the voters in Quay County and my family” for supporting him. He also thanked his opponent for “running a clean race.”

Wallace said, “The people chose their candidate. I want to thank all who voted for me, and gave me support and encouraging words.”

Immediately after the vote totals were announced, Wallace shook Shafer’s hand and congratulated him on running a clean race.

Mitchell declined to comment, except to acknowledge that he did not receive enough votes to be retained.

In all three counties of the Tenth Judicial District , 1,884 voted to remove Mitchell, and 1880 voted to retain him. The counties include Quay, Harding and DeBaca counties.

A majority of Quay County voters—1,341 voted to remove Mitchell and 1,248 voted to retain him.

According to county clerks’ offices in Harding and DeBaca counties, Mitchell received a 284 to 198 vote to retain in Harding County but a 348 to 345 in favor of his removal in DeBaca County.

Since state law would have required Mitchell to receive 57 percent of the vote, the margin of four votes against retention in preliminary results indicate he may be removed from the bench.

Pam Clark, treasurer of the committee that opposed Mitchell’s retention, was confident of success.

In a written statement, she said, “We are pleased that the committee’s efforts to ensure that Judge Mitchell would not be retained were successful. When the committee was formed, we verified the complaints we had received, did research and presented factual information regarding judge Mitchell to the general public and let them decide.”

Clark also expressed gratitude to “everyone who voted and appreciate the many people who contacted us with your support.”

Quay County’s Jefferson Byrd received 1,527 votes in Quay County in his quest to unseat U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who received 1,107 votes in the county.

Byrd was not available for comment, but his campaign manager Todd Hathorne, who was still awaiting results from other portions of the Third Congressional District, said early results from Bernalillo County and Sandoval County were encouraging and said Byrd expected to do well in Curry County.

Ron Wilmot, Lujan’s representative for Quay County, said Byrd’s majority showing in Quay County was likely due to the fact that Byrd lives in the county.

Unopposed in Quay County races were Republican District 3 Quay County Commissioner candidate Franklin McCasland (2,004 votes), Republican county assessor candidate Vic Baum (2,153 votes), Republican state Rep. Dennis Roch (2,165 votes), Democrat Magistrate Judge David Joel Garnett (2,061 votes), Democrat County Probate Judge Nelda Burson (1,821 votes), and Republican Public Regulation Commissioner Patrick H. Lyons (1,987 votes).

Early in the day, Quay County Clerk Veronica Marez and chief deputy clerk Ellen White worked to correct an issue that had been reported statewide at rural polling places, including Logan and Nara Visa.

White said that polling officials reported that some voters’ ballots had been declared spoiled. She said the stock ballots issued at those polling sites had perforated lines which did not tear cleanly or tore into a portion of the ballot’s bar code.

White said when this occurred, the electronic voting machine would detect the rough edge or torn bar code and reject the ballot as spoiled.

Marez said that additional ballots were issued to those who had theirs declared spoiled and said poll workers made sure that all voters were able to cast a valid ballot.

In state races, Quay County voters contributed 1,820 votes to Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s expected victory over Democratic Gov. Gary King, who received 858 votes in the county. Quay County voters cast 1,557 votes for Republican Allen Weh for U.S. Senate and 1,125 votes for incumbent Democrat Sen. Tom Udall.

Other state candidates and questions received the following vote totals in Quay County Tuesday:

Secretary of State

Dianna J. Duran, Republican, 1,778

Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Democrat, 844

State Auditor

Robert J. Aragon, Republican, 1,490

Timothy M. Keller, Democrat, 1,078

State Treasurer

Rick J. Lopez, Republican, 1,501

Tim Eichenberg, Democrat 1,085

Attorney General

Susan M. Riedel, Republican, 1,515

Hector Balderas, Democrat, 1,098

Commissioner of Public Lands

Aubrey Dunn, Republican, 1,707

Ray Bennett Powell, Democrat, 909

Judge of the Court of Appeals

J. Miles Hanisee, Republican, 1,588

Kerry C. Kiernan, Democrat, 922

Judicial Retention

Edward L. Chavez, justice of the state Supreme Court

Yes, 1,359

No, 799

Linda M. Vanzi, judge of the state Court of Appeals

Yes, 1,332

No, 771

Jim Wechsler, judge of the state Court of Appeals

Yes, 1,364

No, 738

Cynthia Fry, judge of the state Court of Appeals?

Yes, 1,372

No, 721

State

Constitutional amendment 1

Proposing to provide that school elections shall be held at different times from partisan elections.

For, 1,253

Against 1,067

Constitutional amendment 2

Proposing to change the board of regents of Northern New Mexico State School by filling one regent position with a student.

For, 1,249

Against, 985

Constitutional amendment 3

Proposing to allow the legislature to set the date for filing declarations of candidacy for judicial retention elections.

For, 1,257

Against, 942

Constitutional amendment 4

Proposing to allow certain counties to become urban counties and to clarify the majority vote needed to adopt a county charter.

For, 1,128

Against, 1,079

Constitutional amendment 5

Proposing to preserve the land grant permanent funds by increasing the duty of care, removing the restrictions on the type of investment that may be made and increasing the threshold amount for additional distributions.

For, 1,011

Against, 1,194

Bond Question A

Shall the state be authorized to issue general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $17 million to make capital expenditures for certain senior citizen facility improvement, construction and equipment acquisition projects?

For, 1,309

Against, 979

Bond Question B

Shall the state be authorized to issue general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $11 million to make capital expenditures for academic, public school, tribal and public library resource acquisitions?

For, 1,200

Against, 1,089

Bond Question C

Shall the state be authorized to issue general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $141 million to make capital expenditures for certain higher education, special schools and tribal schools capital improvements and acquisition?

For, 1,209

Against, 1,128

Thomas Garcia, Senior Writer, contributed to this story