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Roswell Daily Record

Vol. 119, No. 258 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday

INSIDE NEWS

EXHIBIT SHOWS SPANISH INFLUENCE

THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY

October 28, 2010

Computer glitch disrupts early voting

SANTA FE (AP) — County elections of ficials complained Wednesday of problems with New Mexico’s voter registration computer system, saying it has disrupted early voting at some locations across the state and continues to delay the preparation of voter turnout reports. County clerks worry that they’ll have trouble preparing voter sign-in rosters for Tuesday’s general election if the secretary of state’s office doesn’t resolve the computer problems.

SANTA FE (AP) — Comanche Indian chief Ecueracapa, his son, Oxamaguea, and the Spanish Gov. Juan Bautista de Anza had an important conversation on May 19, 1786, in Santa Fe. - PAGE A2

THURSDAY

www.roswell-record.com

“The slowdowns have been creating a problem every day,” said Curry County Clerk Coni Jo Lyman. “It’s been absolutely a nightmare.” Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo said the office was trying to ease delays by developing procedures for counties to reduce the workload on the computer system. The secretary of state’s office will do the same by processing reports at night during offpeak hours, he said.

However, Trujillo said the capacity of the computer system can’t be expanded without money approved by the Legislature. Of ficials in Dona Ana, San Juan and Santa Fe counties said early voting was delayed at some locations Tuesday evening because poll workers weren’t able to access the statewide voter registration system. The county of ficials blamed the secretary of state’s office for the expira-

Look into my eyes

tion of a security certificate, which is needed for a secure online connection with the voter registration system. T rujillo said the early voting glitch was resolved about an hour after a county clerk reported the problem. The security certificate had been renewed last week by the secretary of state’s office, and the computer problems were eliminated Tuesday night after officials called the state’s vendor for the encryption

Haunts of Roswell JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER

TOP 5 WEB

For The Last 24 Hours

•Thee-vehicle accident • Man arrested after child shot • Church trying to replace roof • Roswell boys get No. 3 seed • Flag for the mayor

INSIDE SPORTS

A great horned owl peers from its enclosure at the Spring River Zoo, Wednesday morning.

Martha Murphy to receive Lifetime Achievement Award EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER

Uribe, Giants win Game 1 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Giants turned the World Series opener into an extra long round of batting practice — against Cliff Lee and the Texas Rangers.

- PAGE B1

TODAY’S OBITUARIES • Mona M. Garlinger • Andrew Kim Irvin • Sharon Glenn Jackson - PAGE A3

HIGH .....71˚ LOW ....37˚

TODAY’S FORECAST

technology, he said. County clerks said they continue to face problems because the computer system is overburdened. That causes delays for counties in processing and printing daily reports of voters that have cast ballots so far. Candidates and political parties use the reports to ensure their supporters turn out and vote. “The whole system is at a standstill. It is unbelievable,” said Denise Lamb, who runs the bureau of elections in Santa Fe County.

The Assurance Home may be hidden in a secluded wooded oasis off Orchard Avenue, yet it likely has seen more celebrities and dignitaries than City Hall. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, former U.S. Senator and astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmidt and actress Ali McGraw have all roamed the 16-acre grounds of the therapeutic group safe house for troubled teens. Martha Redding Murphy But not by luck, according to the home’s executive director, Ron Malone. It’s all the work of one woman: Martha Redding Murphy, Roswell’s patron saint of forgotten and neglected children. “She changed the whole course of our program,” said Malone, the executive director of Assurance Home since 1979. Murphy, a San Francisco Bay native, will be honored next month for her lifelong commitment to fighting for children’s rights and freedoms, especially during her tenure as president of the Assurance Home Board of Directors. She will receive the New Mexico Governor’s Distinguished Public Service Lifetime Achievement Award on Nov. 16 at a banquet emceed by former Govs. Garrey Carruthers and Toney Anaya. The public service awards recognize those who have an established history of community service. “I’m very thrilled and honored and humbled,” Murphy, 83, said. Murphy, a former elementary school teacher, first became involved with the Assurance Home in the early 1980s. She met Malone in a thrift shop on McGaffey Street where she was donating clothes just as the home was beginning its third year of housing homeless and at-risk teens. She expressed interest in getting involved because she recalled the poor conditions in which children were forced to live in West

Mark Wilson Photo

All Hallows Eve and the Day of the Dead conjure images of ghosts and goblins. Before there were aliens, there were ghosts and many live with us still. Ghosts are said to inhabit the Chaves County Courthouse. Scott Bayes, who works at night, says, “There’s supposed to be kids and a ghost of a woman, named Alice, in the old magistrates part of the building, but I’ve not seen them. I hear tell that they have photographs of ghostly balls of light taken in the stairwell near the juvenile detention center.” John Wayne Davies relayed the history. “When the new courthouse was being built, the workers would hear blood curdling screams. The last night of construction, the crew heard a scream so loud that they ran from the building and refused to return.” He said that Alice was named after See HAUNTS, Page A2

Man charged in fake bomb plot WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pakistanibor n Virginia man was arrested Wednesday and accused of casing Washington-area subway stations in what he thought was an al-Qaida plot to bomb and kill commuters. The bombing plot was a ruse conducted over the past six months, the

FBI said, but 34-year-old Farooque Ahmed readily handed over video of northern Virginia subway stations, suggested using rolling suitcases rather than backpacks to kill as many people as possible and offered to See PLOT, Page A2

Ghoulish graveyard

Mark Wilson Photo

A spooky graveyard awaits Halloween trick-or-treaters in the front yard of the residence located at 110 S. Washington Ave.

Ezzell seeks re-election to state House of Representatives See MURPHY, Page A2

MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER

INDEX

CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................A6 PUBLIC RECORDS ..A8 FINANCIAL .............B3 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........B6 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8

Candy Spence Ezzell

Candy Spence Ezzell has served in the state House of Representatives since 2005 and says she’s seeking reelection on the Republican ticket because she wants to protect voters and the interests of southeast New Mexico. In recent legislative sessions she voiced her opposition against measures that would lead to tax increases and criticizes Gov. Bill Richardson’s policies while in office. “What’s keeping me going is the protection of the citizens of the state of New

Mexico, first and foremost,” she said. “We have seen what this administration has done by balancing our state’s budget by raising taxes and, to me, that’s unconscionable. “Everybody else has to have a budget that they work within, shouldn’t our Legislature and our state’s government so the same?” Although Richardson won’t be in office by the time lawmakers gavel in for the January session, Ezzell says there will be work to do in reversing actions taken during his term. She cited potential green house gas rules that could be enacted by the state’s Environmental Improvement Board

before the end of the year, saying the rules would need to be overturned. “The way to overcome that is to go in through legislation and undo what they have done and then take away funding for those organizations,” she said. “All they are doing is hurting the citizens of the state.” As a rancher, Ezzell says she became involved in state government because she is “one of the working class” and was tired of her taxpayer dollars “being wasted.” Over the years she continued her work because she was able to give a voice to those who weren’t heard, Ezzell said. “My passion has been

people who have had a very serious problem and no where else to turn,” she said. “I was able to help every one of my constituents who have called me. I have returned their phone calls (and) have gone to bat for them. ... That’s what it’s supposed to all be about.” Overall, Ezzell says she plans to continue to fight for voters in the southeast region of the state, as well as all the state’s residents, if re-elected. “The common goal here, and I still believe this, is that we are trying to do the good of New Mexico for all of New Mexico,” she said.

mattarco@roswell-record.com


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