By Jim Williams
Albuquerque, NM – As we reported two weeks ago, former Elections Bureau employees have backed up claims made by former Elections Director A.J. Salazar that the office is being mismanaged. Salazar has said that Don Francisco Trujillo, who has been Deputy Secretary of State, and is now Elections Director, interfered with the running of the Bureau. Other former employees confirm this, and maintain that was the reason for their departure.
In addition, Salazar claims that Secretary of State Mary Herrera ordered her employees to gather petition signatures for her re-election campaign, and to seek "sponsorships" from private companies that contract with her office. This has also been corroborated by another former Elections Director.
Trujillo agreed to an interview with KUNM. Although originally Herrera was also to be present for this interview, on Tuesday she was unavailable, traveling the state to various "functions" she had to attend.
In this interview, Trujillo addresses Salazar's allegations, as well as questions about his qualifications for the Elections Director position, and other issues the Secretary of State's office is dealing with. He says Herrera "may have", in a meeting, asked employees to gather petition signatures for her. He maintains that neither this nor the request for sponsorships is illegal or unacceptable. He also says that high turnover within the Secretary of State's office is probably not unusual.
The interview runs 1 hour, 6 minutes.