By Etta Pettijohn

Legislation that would remove language requiring absentee ballots to contain three forms of voter identification—name, address and year of birth—currently sits in the House State Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee, and if adopted could cause major problems for the state’s election integrity.

Currently state law mandates these three ID qualifications be written on an absentee ballot. Should HB 229 pass, these requirements would no longer be law statewide.

Sponsored by Linda M. Trujillo (D-48) and Daniel A. Ivey-Soto (D-15) The Election Laws Cleanup Act (House Bill 229), is designed to “kill” a lawsuit filed by the Republican Party of New Mexico (RPNM) last November, which seeks an injunction to halt absentee ballot counting in a southern (Doña Ana) county, and alleges state and local officials were ignoring requirements over ballot qualifications, according to the Republican Party of New Mexico (RPNM) officials.

The RPNM’s lawsuit alleges Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, wrongly allowed local officials to count absentee ballots even though at least one of the three ID qualifications was missing, and that defendants did nothing to fix this problem, despite the fact the election law was broken. The RPNM found at least 70 of these ballots have at least one of the three necessary pieces of information missing.

It also alleges the Absentee Voting Precinct Board had been instructed to count these by the Doña Ana County Clerk, who was acting on the advice of the Secretary of State Maggie Oliver, even though they were missing the legal requirements.

Asking for a declaratory judgment to clarify the meaning of the 2019 changes to the statute, plaintiffs are also asking the court to set a uniform statewide standard for qualifying and counting absentee votes for future elections.

“What’s happening in Doña Ana County is wrong and setting a bad precedent for future elections. Our party must stand up to this. People who vote illegally are hurting the integrity of the system. We as a party must raise a red flag when we see people ignoring voting laws,” said RPNM Chairman Steve Pearce. “It’s our duty to call on the state to fix these problems.

“There's more to that HB 229 election legislation than meets the eye. If this bill is passed, it will lead to absentee voting chaos and fraud. No ID requirements. This seems to be a subtle way to void the party's lawsuit, which demands that the law be followed,” said Pearce.

“Why would Democrats suddenly want to do this? Such a move would cause election chaos and lead to more voter fraud. Under this bill, anyone could send in a ballot with wrong information and the electoral process would be damaged. Anyone who gets hold of a ballot could use it in any way he wants. There would be no way of knowing if a submitted absentee ballot came from the right voter,” he said.

In Sept. 2018 the state Supreme Court blocked Democrat Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver from bringing back straight-party voting for the November general election, ruling that the secretary of state does not have the authority to unilaterally make the policy change. She had announced her intention to do so, while running for political office herself.

The unanimous decision confirmed that only the Legislature has authority to restore straight-party voting, which allows voters to vote for a major party’s entire slate of candidates by filling in an oval at the top of the ballot.

“This power is theirs alone, and the Legislature has indicated its intent to thoroughly regulate how ballots appear,” Chief Justice Judith Nakamura said while handing down the decision. At the time both the RPNM and the state Libertarian party threatened lawsuits.

Then, in the 2018 2nd Congressional District election, in a very close race, Republican Yvette Herrell held a 1,970-vote lead over her opponent, Xochitl Torres Small on election night. But controversy erupted and recounts were threatened when, the next morning, after thousands of absentee ballots were discovered and counted, Torres Small became the choice on 6,411 of the 8,250 absentee ballots, while Herrell captured 1,847 of the votes, carrying 50.7 percent.

Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin, after her staff counted about half of the absentee ballots by the end of election night, secured ballots for the night, after claiming her staff was too tired to finish counting.

It’s unclear how many of those absentee ballots were missing the legally required information the county election office allowed.

To contact sponsors of HB 226, Linda M. Trujillo call (505) 986-4436, and Daniel A. Ivey-Soto at (505) 986-4270.