The following was submitted anonymously by a local poll worker to ensure they remained in that position, which they value as one of their patriotic contributions to their community:
Thank you for your recent initiatives concerning elections, election machines and questions put to the Sierra County Clerk. I have some comments on those recent posts published in The Citizen.
Full disclosure: I am an experienced election poll worker having served as an election worker in Hawaii, Washington state and New Mexico. Prior to retirement, I had a 45 year professional career serving mostly in local or state government departments which gave me familiarity not just with the inner workings of such administrations, but also voting procedures and processes.
Firstly, I reference Ms. Amy Whitehead’s responses to your questions (Sept 16 I believe).
You commend Ms. Amy Whitehead for the quick response. Yes, it is wonderful for a journalist to get responses in a timely fashion from an elected official. I understand. I suspect, however, that most of the content Ms Whitehead supplied you as answers was not her own words, but “cut n paste” from either the County Clerk handbook, or the training materials supplied to county clerks by the Secretary of State who has done and excellent job of establishing a framework for how NM conducts elections. As a result NM consistently is rated highly for election integrity. Let’s keep it that way.
I couldn’t help noticing, however, that the only question which Ms Amy Whitehead did not answer was the one about conflict of interest and her husband being on the ballot. No source for her to cut n paste an answer? Perhaps I am being uncharitable, the Sierra County population is small, and a Whitehead may just be the best person for the job, but YES I am concerned that we can’t hardly turn around in this county without finding a Whitehead drawing a salary or remuneration from our tax dollars. Nepotism and cronyism much?
All the fine aspirations in Ms. Amy Whitehead’s answers aside, was she not the county clerk who allowed a candidate (Rebecca Dow) onto the ballot without proper paperwork as recently as this past primary? Shoddy work on a County Clerk’s part in my opinion resulted in unnecessary “is there or isn’t there a candidate for the district?” 11 th hour write ins, 11 th hour “okay candidate IS on the ballot” rulings and altogether a whole lot of unnecessary drama.
Election workers are frontline recipients of the fallout from this type of drama. Voters let election workers know their opinions even if said workers are not responsible. Because Ms Amy Whitehead (and candidate Rebecca Dow) did not follow procedure, there were inevitably some muddles and tensions on voting day. It’s easy to learn to cut n paste, not so easy to read, mark and inwardly digest then act accordingly. Election integrity begins with the County Clerk knowing AND following procedure at every stage.
Unless I missed it, nowhere does Ms Amy Whitehead tell you that she seems to observers to delegate a major part of the practical aspects of running the election: recruiting election workers, election worker training (mandated by NM statute NMSA 1-2-17(E) and Election Day troubleshooting to someone on her staff called Courtney. I have no problem with delegation in the workplace, but what are this Courtney’s qualifications, training or experience? Has she ever presented herself for scrutiny before the voters to be elected, as a County Clerk is?
During the recent primary, Courtney hired her younger sister and three other teens (too young to vote but not too young to be paid out of state and county election worker coffers it seems ) to serve as extras alongside experienced election workers. Nepotism much? I am all for youth engagement in civics and refreshing the election worker pool, but there used to be clear written codes in workplaces around family hires. Corruption writ small is still corruption in my book.
Or maybe I am wrong. Times have changed and nepotism is now the rule.
Perhaps a pertinent question to ask Ms Amy Whitehead is: what criteria are used to select election poll workers and how are the various positions of presiding judge, election judge and election clerk assigned at each venue? Then, what steps are taken to ensure that election workers have attended the mandatory training and have the necessary competencies to carry out the tasks effectively?
In recent Sierra County elections there have been instances of
- election workers not attending mandatory trainings, yet still being assigned election worker, including “election judge” positions.
- an Election Judge asking people for “green cards” when she should be asking for voter permits – a different beast entirely but then not everyone has been through the rigors of legal immigration. At no stage, after a voter has received their ballot, should an election worker be questioning that voter’s citizenship status as a request for “green card” implies. This can be seen by an observer as voter intimidation.
- An election worker, in 2024. (Yes prior to Ms Amy Whitehead’s term as County Clerk), after handing a voter their ballot, then asked what nationality that voter was. In NM, election workers may NOT ask for proof of identity or citizenship UNLESS it is a same day registration or there is a problem finding their registration in the database by name, birthdate and address. None of these applied in that case since the database had already verified the voter and printed their ballot. Again, this can be seen by an observer as voter intimidation.
What I am saying is that there seems to be a gap, a shadow, between the rhetoric and the actions in the Sierra County Clerk’s office.
There also seem to be certain election poll workers who are playing by a different rule book, and are being allowed to do so. Why?
Oh and while I am poking the bear: Voting machines and their certification are only part of it. Why, when I understand (I could be wrong) that the city of TorC has always provided internet in the polling venues in the past, did Sierra County recently decide to go with a dedicated Starlink satellite connection, and not the city’s, for election connectivity ? A perhaps pertinent question to Ms Amy Whitehead, Sierra County Clerk, would be: who made that decision, and why?
There are hopefully good technical reasons. Starlink’s CEO does have a bit of a record in global election interference. Surely not in our backyard?