SoS Dereliction of Duty

According to this AP story, http://www.scsun-news.com/silver_city-news/ci_27492938, a mere 4% of all fines imposed by Secretary of State Dianna Duran during the 2012 and 2014 election cycles were collected. Slightly over 33% were waived, and the remainder were simply overlooked.

The majority of the nearly 2000 fines are no doubt for late filing or for missing or incorrect information in the filing. But one has to wonder whether PRC candidate Ben Hall was ever fined for his blatant misuse of public funds, when he chose to pay himself to be a candidate last year, and whether that fine was collected.

It is ironic to see this report come out as the legislature is in session, and we are so focused on improving laws to make elections more fair and more transparent. But all the good laws on the book won't matter if we don't have elections officials who are willing to enforce those laws.

Not to mention, the state could use the money!