At the June 5 primary, three candidates will face off for the position of Santa Fe District 2 County Commissioner. SFR quizzed each of them on issues they’ll need to be versed in, should they be elected. Each was allotted one minute per question.

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In anticipation of the 2012 primary election, SFR quizzed three candidates for the position of Santa Fe County Clerk. The fourth candidate did not provide the Clerk's office with a working phone number, and could not be reached.

 

The questions:

1.    Why are you running?

2.    Approximately how many registered voters are there in Santa Fe County?

3.    What is the penalty for late filing of a lodger’s tax report?

4.    How many voting precincts are there in Santa Fe County?

5.    How far away from polling places must people who are campaigning stay?

6.    Last fall, the Secretary of State’s office revealed that how many dead people were registered to vote?

 

Tara Lujan, member of the City of Santa Fe Ethics Committee

 

1.   I’ve working in this field and working in elections for the last few years, and growing up in Santa Fe, I’ve worked on elections, and I believe this office is the most important of our official offices because it provides the foundation of all other elected offices...So I’ve seen firsthand what the demands of operating elections are, from having worked as a field director here in Santa Fe County during the 2010 Democratic state candidates election. It takes someone with the ethic of personal sacrifice to go out and protect and serve our public’s right, and that’s the right to vote, and making sure we’re not going to do anything to disenfranchise our voters and taking the personal responsibility of that.

2.    In Santa Fe County there’s approximately 94,000.

3.    You know what, I can find that out. I’m not sure. I don’t know the answer to that.

4.    We’ve just gotten a new one, so there are 88.

5.    100 feet.

6.    Oh, I do know this. A small percentage—I know that we had 64,000 questionable ballots from the Secretary of State, but let me think—and out of all those, there was just like 13 that they could come up with…Are you talking about just in Santa Fe or in the state?

SFR: The state.

TL: I’m trying to think. You got me on that one, too, because I know it was a small percentage. I don’t know the exact number of that.

Letitia Montoya, financial services technician

 1.    My biggest concern is voter turnout. When you look at the 2010 election, we had less than 48 percent turnout, and you break it down to the county level: In Santa Fe County, we had a 23 percent turnout for the primary. So my goal is to re-energize, bring in convenience centers and a mobile unit to pull out for the first 28 days of early voting.

2.    96,000.

3.    Well, I don’t know, but I know for penalizing for your financial reporting system it’s $50—I don’t think it’d be more than that.

4.    Oh my god, there’s a bunch of them. I actually have them broken down to—based upon locations, there’s 20 locations times I’d say maybe about—this is just a rough estimate because I have them right here, and I know with every voting site, like for Eldorado, for Edgewood, so you’re looking at maybe 40 voting areas. That’s just an estimate.

5.    100 feet.

6.    Well, dead people shouldn’t be voting. And that’s the biggest thing that I have right now with vital statistics, that we should be interlinked with them so that as people do pass away it comes to us and they’re taken off the rosters. I can tell you that—I cannot tell you how many dead people voted because I don’t know.

 

Geraldine Salazar, current employee of Santa Fe County Clerk’s office

 1.  I work at the county clerk’s office, and I’m running to ensure that our public records are preserved and protected in the public’s interest. And also to guarantee that our elections are fair and efficient, and that’s what I’ve been saying over and over in all of the forums and also in my literature that I hand out. Plus, I want to continue to conduct elections with as much integrity as we’ve had in the last eight years. I think it’s important to build on the successes we’ve had already. And I love where I’m working. I think that day one, with my experience in the clerk’s office, I can manage that office.

2.   I know it’s in the 97,000 because I believe I used that for a forum one time. Ninety-seven thousand plus.

3.   We don’t handle the lodger’s tax report anymore, but I’m wondering if we—that I cannot answer what the penalty fee is, sorry!

4.    We have 86 precincts in Santa Fe County.

5.    200 feet.

6.    I know I read that, and I remember talking about it, and I’m trying to think—how many did she say. I’m going to take a wild guess. I’m wondering—in the whole state, correct? And that was pretty controversial also. I have a feeling it’s in the 80s or 90,000s. I’m taking a wild guess on that.

SFR: I just want to make sure you understand the question. There was a larger group that the Secretary of State’s office wanted the Department of Public Safety to look into and then there was a smaller group that they said were dead people registered to vote.

GS: I can’t remember. And I think it was lower than what they thought. And I believe we didn’t have a major problem after that. After all of the issues that were brought up about people voting and being on the polls that were deceased, I think the number was much lower than what was anticipated or what was stated.

 

Gilbert Garcia

 The most recent phone number Garcia has given Santa Fe County is not valid. According to the clerk’s office, it’s the fourth phone number Garcia has given that office since declaring his candidacy, and he has not provided an email address or other contact information. SFR was not able to reach him for the quiz.

 

Answers:

2. 95,103

3. Ten percent of tax due, or $100 minimum. According to the website of the Santa Fe County Clerk, that office does handle lodger’s tax reports.

4. 88

5. 100 feet

6. 641. The Secretary of State’s office did ask the Department of Public Safety last summer to investigate a total of 64,000 possibly illegal voters, and identified 13 as lacking sufficient identification.

 

 

 Santa Fe Community College narrowed down its search for a new college president to six candidates out of a total of 54 applicants.

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When Camino de Paz Montessori School Director Patricia Pantano first tried to engage sustainable food guru Joel Salatin for the school's annual Food for Thought brunch, she received an email back that he wouldn't be able to make it.

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 The Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association is putting on a series of concerns beginning a week from today featuring several special guests. 

SFYSA has been around since 1994 and provides an opportunity for kids up to age 19 to play orchestral instruments in an ensemble setting. Each ticket (adults, $10, students, $5, kids age 0-4, free) is good for all four concerts:

Friday, May 4: 6:30 pm—Elementary Strings at St. Francis Auditorium

Saturday, May 5: 6:00 pm—Jazz Improv at Warehouse 21

Sunday, May 6: 1:00 pm— Preparatory & Intermezzo String Orchestras, Youth Philharmonia, and Youth Symphony Orchestra at the St. Francis Auditorium

Monday, May 7: 7:00 pm—Mariachi Garibaldi and Mariachi Estrella with special guests Los Ninos de Santa Fe Ballet Folklorico

Sunday's performance also features special guest Gregory T.S. Walker, an African-American composer and musician known for his fusion of electric and classical music.
Tickets can be bought at the door to each event, or by calling (505) 467-3770 or emailing sfysaed@gmail.com.