New Mexico's election night process questioned
From Ballotpedia
October 22, 2008
Voter rights groups have become concerned about the election night process in New Mexico. The focus has become the transparency of how votes will be counted on election night, and how the unofficial results will be posted to the Secretary of State's website.[1]
Auburn SeeWolf
On election night, unofficial results will be posted by county. A number of groups have questioned the companies involved in this process. The reporting will be done by tech firm Auburn SeeWolf, a firm who does not have a contract with the state, but rather with Automated Election Services, who do have a state contract.
AES receives the results from the counties, forwards it to Auburn SeeWolf, and they upload it to the Secretary of State's site. Issues have been raised to the transparency of this process. Secretary of State Mary Herrera said there is no reason to be concerned. “People are making a big deal out of everything this year,” Herrera said, “Some people are going to question everything.”[1]
Defense Ties
Agreeing with Herrera, AES President Terry Rainey said, “Transparency is in the eye of the beholder...and the end result is these are not the official results…I know it’s not real popular to not have a conspiracy theory, but [Auburn SeeWolf] is a contractor that provides Web support services to a number of companies nationwide.”[1]
However, groups are concerned that Auburn SeeWolf also has a number of defense ties. SeeWolf CEO Sandra Ryan has a top secret clearance with the Department of Defense, previously worked as a physicist at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, and held a management position at the Science Applications International Corporation, who were found guilty of fraud earlier this year.[1]
Advocates are also concerned that the servers, which store the unofficial results, are in Ryan's basement. Rainey confirmed that they were, but assured they were secure, stating, “It’s not like the servers are in someone’s garage."
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