On March 7, a voter in Sandoval County, New Mexico, and three Republican candidates, filed a lawsuit to overturn the November 2012 election in the county for State Senate district 9, County Clerk, and County Probate Judge. All three elections had been very close in November. The basis for asking for a new election is that county election officials eliminated all 47 precincts in the Republican-leaning city of Rio Rancho, and substituted only five places in which to vote on election day. Furthermore, each of the five polling locations depended on printing ballots-on-demand, and each polling location only had three printers. Rio Rancho is the fastest-growing city in New Mexico and had 57,946 registered voters. The election was administered by the County Clerk, who is a Democrat.

As a result, some voters had to wait in line as long as 5 hours. The lead plaintiff, Teresa Fleming, has medical problems which made it impossible for her to stand in line that long, and she and many other voters abandoned the line and did not vote.

The Republican candidate for State Senate lost the election by 147 votes. The complaint uses statistical data to show that he would have won if the turnout in Rio Rancho had matched the turnout in the rural parts of the county. The rural parts of the county did not have their precincts abolished. The plaintiffs had originally asked for a recount, and then when that did not change the results had filed in state court, but withdrew their lawsuit in state court and re-filed in federal court. The case is Fleming v Gutierrez, 1:13cv-222. Although the Libertarian Party and Gary Johnson have nothing to do with this lawsuit, Sandoval County was one of Gary Johnson’s best counties in the nation; he polled 4.04% in the county and his vote total would surely have been higher if election administration in Rio Rancho had been better. Rio Rancho is a northern suburb of Albuquerque.