Democrats Clean Up In New Mexico

by ABC-7 Reporter Martin Bartlett

DONA ANA COUNTY, N.M. — It appears the Democrats are cleaning up in New Mexico. Dozens of ballots boxes rolled into the government center in Las Cruces. Apparently, they contained a lot of votes for Democratic candidates.

It was a full-on party at the Democratic Party headquarters in Downtown Las Cruces. Hundreds of people watching the results came in and they liked what they saw.

It was Dona Ana County that helped steal a U.S. Senate seat from the Republicans, with the win of Democrat Tom Udall, and push Barack Obama on to the White House.

“We had an extraordinary slate of candidates. These are extraordinary times and these were extraordinary candidates,” said Melinda Whitley, chair of the Dona Ana County Democratic Party.

Dona Ana County election officials are also celebrating, not because of who won, but because they found a bunch of ballots they couldn’t find earlier. A bunch of missing absentee ballots came in the mail Tuesday afternoon.