The Center for Voting, Elections and Democracy at the University of New Mexico announced the release of a report examining the Bernalillo County Clerk’s office administration of the November 2014 general election in Bernalillo County from early voting to election day.
The “2014 Bernalillo County Election Administration Report,” rated the clerk’s office overall with a positive grade, specifically citing the performance of poll workers trained by the clerk’s staff. According to the report’s summary, “Voters rated the overall performance of their poll workers very high with almost all voters (96 percent) indicating their poll workers were very helpful (75 percent) or somewhat helpful (21 percent).”
To collect data for the report, Lonna Atkeson, professor of Political Science at UNM and director of the Center for Voting, Elections and Democracy, and her team observed voting on Election Day and during the early voting period. The team also conducted post-election interviews with voters and poll workers from each of the Early Voting Convenience Centers (EVCC) and the Voting Convenience Centers (VCC) located throughout Bernalillo County on Election Day.
Atkeson said since 2006 voter confidence in the election process has increased in response to the positive changes in election administration the county has implemented over time, with 94 percent of voters indicating they were very or somewhat confident their vote was counted correctly in 2014.