Iglesias said “no case was ever filed as a result of Pat's "referral.”
But Rogers continued to press his case. He took his complaints to the Bernalillo County attorney’s office and called for an investigation.
However, the investigation never got off the ground because Rogers’ claims could not be substantiated.
Wilson was reelected by a margin of 861 votes out of more than 211,000 ballots that were cast.
Some local New Mexico election and law enforcement officials believed Rogers’ allegations that Wilson’s vote tally was padded was an attempt to get federal investigators to call into question the veracity of ballots cast for Madrid while votes were being counted and the race was still up in the air.
Rogers appears to be raising the same issues again with regard to claims of voter fraud during the June Democratic primary of the Albuquerque State House District.
Furthermore, Rogers and other state GOP officials have targeted the grassroots organization Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), claiming the group has been engaged in a widespread voter registration fraud scheme in the state.
Trying to salvage his campaign, John McCain has jumped into the ACORN case, too, citing it at the third presidential debate. He declared ACORN “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."
However, the investigations launched against ACORN have raised other concerns, especially that Republicans are flogging this issue in an effort to stir up anger, to revive McCain’s campaign, and to intimidate new voters.
For its part, ACORN has insisted that its own quality control flagged many of the suspicious registration forms before they were submitted to state officials and that state laws often require outside registration groups to submit all forms regardless of obvious problems.
Independent studies also have shown that phony registrations rarely result in illegally cast ballots because there are so many other safeguards built into the system.
For instance, from October 2002 to September 2005, a total of 70 people were convicted for federal election related crimes, according to figures compiled by the New York Times last year. Only 18 of those were for ineligible voting.
According to an official at the New Mexico U.S. Attorneys office, GOP operatives pressured state officials to contact the FBI about the alleged fraudulent ballots and to probe ACORN.
On Wednesday, the website TPMMuckraker.com contacted Oliver, the Bernalillo County clerk, to follow up on her meeting with the FBI.
“Toulouse Oliver added a bit of detail to that picture. She said she had passed on redacted copies of the suspicious forms (many of which had badly mismatched information, or listed addresses that did not exist) to the offices of the District Attorney and the US Attorney in the area,” TPMMuckraker reported. “When the FBI contacted her, it said it had been asked to follow up by the US Attorney' office. And the meeting between Toulouse Oliver and an FBI agent was also attended by an Assistant US Attorney.
Federal investigative guidelines strongly discourage election-related probes before ballots are cast because of the likelihood that the inquiries will become politicized and might influence the election outcomes.
But Rogers continued to press his case. He took his complaints to the Bernalillo County attorney’s office and called for an investigation.
However, the investigation never got off the ground because Rogers’ claims could not be substantiated.
Wilson was reelected by a margin of 861 votes out of more than 211,000 ballots that were cast.
Rogers appears to be raising the same issues again with regard to claims of voter fraud during the June Democratic primary of the Albuquerque State House District.
Furthermore, Rogers and other state GOP officials have targeted the grassroots organization Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), claiming the group has been engaged in a widespread voter registration fraud scheme in the state.
Trying to salvage his campaign, John McCain has jumped into the ACORN case, too, citing it at the third presidential debate. He declared ACORN “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."
However, the investigations launched against ACORN have raised other concerns, especially that Republicans are flogging this issue in an effort to stir up anger, to revive McCain’s campaign, and to intimidate new voters.
For its part, ACORN has insisted that its own quality control flagged many of the suspicious registration forms before they were submitted to state officials and that state laws often require outside registration groups to submit all forms regardless of obvious problems.
Independent studies also have shown that phony registrations rarely result in illegally cast ballots because there are so many other safeguards built into the system.
For instance, from October 2002 to September 2005, a total of 70 people were convicted for federal election related crimes, according to figures compiled by the New York Times last year. Only 18 of those were for ineligible voting.
According to an official at the New Mexico U.S. Attorneys office, GOP operatives pressured state officials to contact the FBI about the alleged fraudulent ballots and to probe ACORN.
On Wednesday, the website TPMMuckraker.com contacted Oliver, the Bernalillo County clerk, to follow up on her meeting with the FBI.
“Toulouse Oliver added a bit of detail to that picture. She said she had passed on redacted copies of the suspicious forms (many of which had badly mismatched information, or listed addresses that did not exist) to the offices of the District Attorney and the US Attorney in the area,” TPMMuckraker reported. “When the FBI contacted her, it said it had been asked to follow up by the US Attorney' office. And the meeting between Toulouse Oliver and an FBI agent was also attended by an Assistant US Attorney.
Federal investigative guidelines strongly discourage election-related probes before ballots are cast because of the likelihood that the inquiries will become politicized and might influence the election outcomes.
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