Enact Voter Photo ID System To End Voting Fraud

By Victor S. Contreras Jr.  - Chairman, Hispanos Unidos

(Hispanos Unidos is a non-partisan PAC based in Dona Ana County, formed to address election reform issues in New Mexico.)

New Mexicans know our election system is broken. I have learned this first hand as I have traveled the state for more than a year giving presentations on voter fraud. Only members of state government have spoken out against election reform. Citizens ask me, "How can we help?"

Some highlights of what happened in Dona Ana County during the 2008 election:

• The Secretary of State reported 69,658 votes were cast in Dona Ana County, but our county clerk reported only 68,010 people voted. That's 1,648 votes that are unaccounted for - enough to change the results of most local races.
• Many citizens who tried to vote in Dona Ana County were told they had already voted. When they denied it, they were given a provisional ballot. After the election, they received notices that their provisional ballots were thrown out.
• Affidavits from these voters have been collected. Clearly, people intent on cheating used the names of registered voters to cast fraudulent ballots. We will never know their true identities, nor be able to prosecute them.
• A group of volunteers randomly sampled 450 registered voters and attempted to verify their registration information. Forty-six could not be found. Citizens went door to door looking for them. It was assumed they were dead.
• Our Legislature voted recently to seal all death records, so now only our government is allowed to know if votes are cast from the graveyard.

Our county clerk said none of these voters were dead when he or she voted and the clerk reported he had talked to several of these people personally. How did he find them? Using public records our citizens could not. Moreover, even our clerk could not find 16 people on the list. That's 16 fraudulent votes we stumbled upon, cast by people who do not exist.

Dona Ana County residents called on state Rep. Dianne Hamilton, R-Grant, Sierra and Hidalgo counties, to ask her to carry a bill for photo ID at the polls. After we showed her stacks of affidavits, she agreed.

We did not go to local lawmakers because we felt it would put them in an untenable situation - we would be asking them to assert that the election that put them in office was fraudulent.

We do not believe the good citizens who run for public office are crooks, or are in any way involved in voter fraud. We are not a hate group. We simply want the cheating to stop.

Rep. Hamilton insisted that the bill include a caveat that would give a free photo identification card to all New Mexicans who didn't have one and couldn't afford one. Having suffered abject poverty as a child, I realized how important this is. Impoverished citizens can't even apply for relief without a photo ID.

I traveled to Santa Fe to testify in support of the bill requiring photo ID at the polls. It was tabled in committee.

Like most New Mexicans, I was not aware of how things work in Santa Fe. At the time the House Voters and Elections Committee tabled the bill, an independent poll had been released showing that 85 percent of New Mexicans support photo ID at the polls. I learned that by tabling the bill in committee, our lawmakers were able to kill it without going on the record as voting against something the people really want.

Rep. Hamilton will carry the bill again next session. Because it requires modest expenditures, it is germane during the 30-day budget session.

I ask all New Mexicans reading this to call their lawmakers and tell them we want photo ID at the polls. Call the governor's office and ask him to put it on his call. Visit our Web site - www.loshispanosunidos.org - or download and print our petition for photo ID requirements. Get your friends and family to sign it and mail it back to us. You will be joining thousands of New Mexicans who are rising up and demanding relief from election fraud.

Click Here To Download Voter ID Petition

Mail Petition to:

Hispanos Unidos, P.O. Box 2722, Mesilla Park, NM 88047

Why has our state government outlawed photo ID requirements at the polls? The most common reason I am given is that such a requirement will result in the disenfranchisement of our Hispanic citizens. A native New Mexican of Hispanic descent, I find this to be the greatest statement of bigotry I have come across in my lifetime. It infers our Hispanic citizens are too stupid and/or ignorant to meet even the most basic of standards.

Every New Mexican should be outraged by this. What started out as a small group of Hispanic citizens addressing the need for election reform, has grown into a grassroots movement that includes New Mexicans of every background. Our people understand what our state government does not - that we are Americans first. Fair and free elections are our sacred inheritance. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians and Green Party members have all lent their support to this cause.

New Mexicans do not view Hispanics as second-class citizens. I pray our state government will see us as our neighbors do. After all, Advent is a time for hope.

Message From Steve:

It is very important that you respond to this call from Hispanos Unidos.  Please print out their petition, get everyone around you to sign it and send it back to the address above. 

We also want you to sign our online petition.  All you have to do is click here: Voter ID Online Petition, and use your valid email address as your signature.  We need everyone in the State to participate in this grass roots movement for true voting reform. 

And remember to pass this along to your friends by using the "Share This" link at the very bottom of this page.  It will email, Facebook, or Twitter this message to your friends and neighbors.