Our View: A bit of overkill?

We can understand the concern of the Bernalillo County Clerk that she would run out of ballots on election day.

But please, how much is clearly too much?

See, Bernalillo County shredded almost 1.4 million ballots – which cost taxpayers about $1.2 million – that were left over from Tuesday’s primary election.

County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver says her office wanted to avoid a debacle of not having enough ballots.

Well and good, she should make sure she had enough. But how many voters does she think live in Bernalillo County?

When she ordered more than 1.5 million ballots – at $.86 each for a total of nearly $1.3 million – did no one stop and say, “Uh, we only have 285,000 registered Republicans and Democrats?”

Of which about 85,0000 voted.

We admire the clerk for making sure she had enough ballots but come on – $1.4 million extra seems just a bit over the top.

New Mexico’s biggest industry

As the state pushes tourism and the movie industry, the growth businesses in the state is the racino.

New Mexico’s five racetrack casinos took in $244.78 million last year, up 2.7 percent from 2006.

Gamblers spent $238.31 million last year at slot machines at horse racetracks.

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