Reserve Election Contested

By John Severance

RESERVE - A losing candidate in Reserve’s last municipal election is filing a complaint against the person who defeated him.
M. Keith Riddle narrowly defeated Robert Caylor by one vote, and Caylor is challenging the validity of the results, claiming that a lax voter policy corrupted the vote.
The Village of Reserve held its municipal election March 2 and certified the results two days later. Edward T. Romero and M. Keith Riddle secured the two Village Trustee spots with 99 and 91 votes respectively. Robert Caylor finished with 90 and Richard Torres had 87.
Caylor filed the complaint against Riddle in district court last week. The date on the filing was April 7, which was after the 30-day deadline that the election was certified. But Caylor’s attorney Sherry Tippett said Romero, who also is contesting the election, was not sworn in until March 8.
Village clerk Kathy Harris said the election results were certified on March 4. On election night March 2, Harris said the election board counted the results three times and got three different results.
Riddle then suggested they count again and on the fourth time, the results matched one of the three other counts. In the complaint, Caylor claimed that he asked for recount, but Harris and Riddle said that did not happen.
Caylor, though, insisted he did ask for a recount.
When he was asked by the Mountain Mail if he asked for a recount, he said, “Yes sir. There were four recounts that night.”
When Harris, Judge Clayton Atwood and the election board consisting of Virginia Hickman, Esther Minkler and Patsy Tafoya met to canvass the election and certify the results March 4, the vote tallies matched what they came up with on the final count on March 2.
In the complaint submitted to the Seventh Judicial District Court on April 7, Caylor requested an order to preserve and recount the votes for the election, to impound the ballots to nullify the votes of 12 non-residents and the vote of another resident, who he said was “incompetent to vote.” He also requested the election results be set aside and place him in possession of the contested office.
“I don’t want to say too much,” Riddle said. “The bottom line is that Bob is a sore loser and he doesn’t like losing by one vote. I would not like losing by one vote either, but I would not challenge the election.
“His main complaint is that people who don’t live in the Village were able to vote. I used to work in the clerk’s office and this happens all the time.”
“The count is not the issue,” said Caylor, who accused some Village officials of soliciting votes from outside the precinct. “The other issue is there were illegal votes in the election.”
The suit also alleges that a request was made to provide challengers and watchers at the election, which was denied by Riddle in his capacity as Village Councilman and other Village officials. Caylor also has requested an investigation of any election violations by the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office several times, but no investigation has been conducted.
On April 13, the Village Board passed a motion 3-2 to direct Village Attorney William Perkins to intervene in a petition to contest election. Romero and Eddie Varela voted no while trustees Wilford Estrada and Riddle voted yes. Mayor Connie Wehrheim broke the deadlock, voting yes, and the motion passed.

Editor’s note: The Mountain Mail will take an indepth look at the Reserve election in next week’s issue.

Reserve Election Contested