Former New Mexico Secretary of State indicted

From Ballot Access News
Former New Mexico Secretary of State Indicted
August 20th, 2009

On August 19, an indictment was made public, charging former New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron with fraud, money laundering, tax fraud, attempts to evade or defeat tax, making/permitting false public vouchers, soliciting/receiving an illegal kickback, offering/paying an illegal kickback, and tampering with evidence. The charges seem to relate to federal funds sent to the Secretary of State’s office during 2004 for voter education. See this story, which has a link to the 20-page indictment.

Vigil-Giron served three four-year terms as Secretary of State. She was elected in 1986, 1998, and 2002. She is a Democrat. She made some rulings that were hostile to minor parties. During her second term, in 1999, the Libertarian Party was conducting a registration drive. Her office disallowed all new Libertarian registrants in any particular county, if even one person in that county complained that he or she had been tricked into registering into the party. However, a state court judge disallowed that ruling and restored the registrations.

During her third term, when the Green Party was entitled to a primary in 2004 (because it had polled over 5% for Governor in 2002), she ruled all Green candidates who were running for public office off the Green Party primary ballot, so that the Green Party was left with no nominees except for president and vice-president in 2004. Also, starting with the 2006 election, she removed the straight-ticket device from the general election ballot for all parties except the Democratic and Republican Parties, even though nothing in the law authorizes such discriminatory treatment. Also, while she was Secretary of State, the Secretary of State’s webpage was set up to show voter registration data by political party, but omitted any mention of the qualified minor parties, thus giving the impression that they didn’t exist.

In addition, a web search turns up another complaint, from 2001, made by the Green Party of New Mexico because Vigil-Giron tried to deny the Green Party major party status in the state. That text is here and below:

6) GREEN PARTY SUIT AGAINST NM SECRETARY OF STATE
***************************************************
On Sept. 27, the Green Party of New Mexico filed a
state Supreme Court suit to challenge New Mexico
Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron’s March, 2001
reinterpretation of the election code so as to deny
it major party status. “According to former Attorney
General Tom Udall, the law is clearly on our side,”
says Green Party CoChair Melissa McDonald. “If the
Secretary of State wants to change the law, she is
constitutionally required to go to the legislature
for that. We are appalled that she is brazenly by-
passing the constitution of this state in a partisan
attempt to cut us out of the political process. If
she can get by with this, who knows what comes next?”