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Category: Editorials Editorials
Published: 17 August 2022 17 August 2022

Many registered voters believe that the only time they need to vote is during a presidential election year. Think again. Don’t you want to pick who runs your town, your school, your neighborhood and your state?

Because as an American citizen, you have the privilege of voting for your local, state and federal officials, you should take every opportunity to vote. Your vote lets those officials, especially the local ones, know that you have chosen them to represent you. If you don’t vote, then those chosen may not have your best interests in mind.

If you have concerns about what may have been potential fraud in the 2020 election, did you know that your voter history is available online?

It does not reveal who you voted for, but it says whether you voted in person early or on election day or if you voted absentee. If you have never verified your voting history, you should. It’s fairly simple, and you may find errors.

Step one if you live and vote in New Mexico: visit https://www.sos.state.nm.us

At the top of the page, choose Voting and Elections. In the drop down menu choose Voter Portal Information or go directly to https://www.sos.state.nm.us/voting-and-elections/voter-information-portal/ Scroll down to the section pictured below and click on it.

find my voter info

You are asked to put in your first name and last name. With my double first name, it rejected me the first time, but I persevered, by putting in just half of my first name, and I got to the information page.

The first thing it gives you is your precinct number, your party, and the districts in which you may vote.

For other information, a menu on the side of the page, gives you some options. I chose My Voting History. I often Early Vote, but nearly always in person, so I wondered about the ones that had me voting absentee, but they were several years ago, and I haven’t kept a personal record by which to check them. Perhaps we all should, because sometimes the records are not what you remember or are sure about how you voted.

An example of what can happen and you might never know was stated by a verified, but wishing to remain anonymous person, who wrote this about himself in the third person:

A retired military veteran had established a multi-decades pattern of never voting in any primary. He did not request an absentee ballot for the 2020 Primary as he had no intention of voting. One day during the early voting period, an absentee ballot appeared in his mailbox. He decided to cast a primary ballot for the first time and mailed it back the next day.

Later, during an election integrity audit, it turned out that his absentee ballot was never logged in as having been received by the clerk's office. It is unknown if this absentee ballot was "lost in the mail," or "lost in the clerk's office."

He suspected that someone who knew that he never voted in primaries requested the absentee ballot in his name (identity theft, mail fraud) and missed intercepting the blank ballot somewhere along the line after the absentee ballot request was issued. Whoever that person was may have intercepted the completed ballot while it was enroute back to the clerk's office, but, of course, he will never know for sire. But his voter history confirmed that his ballot had not ben received by the fact that the history did not show his having voted in the primary..

Other cases:
People have shown up in person and been told they already voted and are turned away.

The only way I can think of to prevent this is to request an absentee ballot at least two weeks before early voting starts (to prevent someone else from requesting it). You can drop the absentee ballot off at the clerk's officer or any voting convenience center in person. And don't worry, if you lose the absentee ballot, you can still vote in person. You, the voter will have to fill out an affidavit stating you didn't use the absentee ballot. It is against the law to vote twice in the same election. And yes, people have gone to jail for the offense.

It truly is best to wait until Election Day to vote in person.

As long as you are standing in line by 7 p.m. on election day, the clerk's office can't prevent you from voting on election night, even if you have to stand in line another 4 hours.... (11 p.m.) or more!

Oh, and if you are wondering how the NM Secretary of State is addressing what some have called the fraudulent 2020 election, you might want to visit: https://www.sos.state.nm.us/voting-and-elections/voter-information-portal/rumor-vs-reality/