Judge boots DA's challenger from ballot

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The candidate challenging Bernalillo County's district attorney in June's Democratic primary has been stricken from the ballot by a judge.

Jennifer Romero's nominating petitions were short by one valid signature after he found that hundreds of signatures couldn't be counted.

Romero vowed to appeal Friday's ruling to the state Supreme Court, saying it disenfranchised voters.

"I can't imagine that the New Mexico Supreme Court will enter an order that would silence the voice of so many New Mexicans," Romero said after the hearing. "I expect to be back on the ballot. I have faith in our Supreme Court."

Second Judicial District Judge Alan Malott issued an order that said 360 of Romero's 1,187 signatures fail to satisfy state law, leaving 827 valid signers of 828 needed.

Malott also said Romero's petitions were invalidated because she failed to list the district of the office she sought.

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg told the Albuquerque Journal that the case is about following the law.

"It's not about disenfranchising voters," Brandenburg said." It's about meeting minimal standards . You should know what they are and follow them, and when you don't, I don't know that you can expect to be on the ballot."

Meanwhile, a Tucumcari judge who heard Democratic challenges to nominating petitions filed by two incumbent GOP judges reached a conclusion different from Malott in his case.

Judge Albert "Scooter" Mitchell heard the cases after all the judges in Albuquerque's 2nd District stepped aside. He rejected requests to have the names of district judges Brett Loveless and Sam Winder stricken from the ballot because they did not list the judicial district number they are seeking.

Mitchell's ruling said with the incumbents' petitions, which included the division they were seeking but not the district, it was "clearly . not a case where there's an argument about any specific voter being confused. It's not a case, basically, of argument of fraud."

He said the state-approved petition forms don't have enough room to write in all the particulars "unless you get so small that most of the voters in the state wouldn't be able to read it without a magnifying glass."

"We thought it was always clear that Winder and Loveless complied with the election code," said their attorney, Hank Bohnhoff.

Metropolitan Court Judge Benjamin Chavez, a Democrat, has filed against Winder for the general election, and Metro Judge Briana Zamora is challenging Loveless.

Attorney Paul Melendres, who represents Zamora and Chavez, said the issue will be appealed but he was unsure if it would be taken up at a scheduled Tuesday hearing by the Supreme Court on election issues.

"It was going to end up in the Supreme Court anyway," he said.