Election error was human caused

A recent written statement from the Valencia County clerk is now pointing to “human error” as the cause of discrepancies found during the county’s canvass of the 2025 Local Regular Election results in November.

During the Nov. 10 canvassing meeting, where the Valencia County Commission serves as the county canvassing board, Valencia County Chief Deputy Clerk Brenda Hume told commissioners the clerk’s office discovered an error in the number of ballots cast during the election.

“There was an increase in ballots cast here versus what the (New Mexico Secretary of State) had in their system,” Hume said.

At the time, she said the source of the discrepancy was a high-speed counting machine used for absentee ballots, which was certified prior to the election but hadn’t been used to count ballots.

It seemed like the results from the “test deck” of ballots run during the machine’s certification process became stuck in its system and resulted in phantom votes in some races.

On Nov. 24, Valencia County Clerk Mike Milam issued a written statement saying after further review “and working closely with Liberty Voting Systems (formerly Dominion Voting Systems) it has been determined that the incorrect election results ...” reported on Nov. 4 were “due to human error. While the error was unfortunate, the canvass process worked, the error was identified and corrected.”

At the Nov. 10 commission meeting, Hume said once the error was found, the Nov. 4 upload to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s website was “completely scrapped” and correct results were uploaded.

In his statement, Milam wrote that areas of further training have been identified, “as well as additional systems of checks and balances specifically for the high speed scanner used to process absentee ballots, commonly known as the ICC.”

When contacted via phone on Dec. 1 and asked for additional details about what exactly the human error was, Milam declined to elaborate on the matter.

“The statement I issued, that’s it. There is additional training that needs to be done,” Milam said. “There are only nine counties in New Mexico that have had training for the scanner; it’s not a normal tabulator like we’ve used before.”

All election equipment in the state is purchased by the New Mexico Secretary of State and provided to all 33 county clerks.

The New Mexico State Canvass Board met on Nov. 25, and unanimously signed the certificate of canvass, making the results of the 2025 Regular Local Election official.

The board also ordered automatic recounts in 34 races throughout the state, including the District 3 council race for the village of Los Lunas and the village council race in the village of Bosque Farms.

Milam said the county’s recount board met at the election warehouse — located on the west end of the Valencia County Treasurer’s Office, 501 Luna Ave. — starting at 9 a.m., Tuesday, Dec. 2, to begin the recount process.

Candidates in the races subject to the recount have been invited to watch the recount process, the clerk said, and the public is also welcome to observe. Hume said they hope to have the recount done by Wednesday, but it is scheduled for three days.

“Per state statute, when you have races — regardless of how many candidates — with less than five votes between two candidates, that is what is recounted,” Hume said. “So the recount will be between (Naithan) Gurule and (Matthew) Chavez in Los Lunas and (Dolly) Wallace and (James) Bruhn for Bosque Farms.”

In the Los Lunas District 3 race, Chavez has 197 votes to Gurule’s 193, a separation of only four votes. Incumbent Cruz Munuz isn’t part of the recount picture, with 175 votes.

While there were five candidates running for two council seats in Bosque Farms, Manuel Zamora has one of the seats locked up with 519 votes. The recount of ballots for Bruhn and Wallace, who are separated by five votes — 327 to 322 — will determine who gets the second seat.

The state’s recount statute requires 100 ballots be tallied by hand in each of the three counting groups — absentee ballots, early voting and Election Day votes — Hume said.

“Since we have more than one recount, the board only has to do hand tallied proofing for one race. The 100 ballot count by hand shows the tabulator is working correctly,” the deputy chief said. “When the board convenes, they will pull all the ballots from all the bins for both races.”

The board will hand tally 100 ballots for each counting group for one of the races, then run each group of 100 through the high speed scanner to see if the machine matches the hand tally.

“They then run the rest of the ballots, by counting group, through the scanner and compare the results to what are now the official numbers,” Hume said. “Once that race is done, they will move on to the second race and run all the ballots through the scanner by counting groups.”

Those numbers will also be compared to the official numbers on the SOS website.

“We are hopeful we can get done in two days but we have blocked out three days just in case,” Hume said. “The recount board is the same election workers as our absentee board. They have done this several times and are very seasoned.”

Representatives from Liberty Voting will be one hand to assist if needed during the entire recount process, she said, which is a customary practice.

“This is treated basically like a whole new election. It’s our own mini election, from a processing standpoint. We have a whole new project that we load into the SOS system,” she said. “The results will be viewable on the SOS website after we do the recounting, the same as on election night.”

The state canvass board will meet again at 2 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 11, to certify all the recount results from across the state.

The official, certified results of the 2025 Regular Local Election can be viewed on the secretary of state’s website at sos.nm.gov.

“The 2025 Regular Local Election was conducted with the professionalism, efficiency and integrity that New Mexicans expect from their election administrators,” said Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver in a Nov. 25 press release. “These certified results should give every voter full confidence in the process.

“I extend my sincere thanks to the state canvass board for their work today, to my staff at the secretary of state’s office, to our county clerks and their teams, poll workers, vendors, and to our local, state and federal partners whose dedication made this election a success.”