Latest on Election Reform Bills

From Bob Stearns and Charlotte Roybal:
Hello Activists, First off, on arrival at 8 AM we found a sign on the door saying the Senate Judiciary Committee’s meeting of today had been cancelled until sometime late afternoon tomorrow (WEDNESDAY). We were tentatively told that the Judiciary Committee will take up the bill (Committee Substitute for SB678) late tomorrow WEDNESDAY afternoon, but this is not confirmed until it appears on the Legislature website.

Twelve of us went on to the other 8 AM meeting of the House Voters & Elections Committee. Chair Ed Sandoval said the plan is to merge HB1063 with amendments and on THURSDAY discuss the bill as a whole (but this is not officially confirmed).

He said the Committee needs to work on the dates in Rep. Martinez’s moratorium amendment or run the risk of losing NM’s HAVA funding. He asked Martinez and SoS Elections Director Ernie Marquez to work on that question for a floor amendment. Martinez noted that all the Committee members want VVPB machines and that maybe the moratorium amendment could rearrange its approach to give the proposed Election Reform Task Force time to look at the situation and the SoS time to check out the available machines.

In answer to Committee questioning, Marquez said that $7-9 million in HAVA funding is available to buy HAVA compliant machines and that the money must be spent by 1/1/06. (Another state finance official testified that the HAVA funds total $14 million and have been set aside in NM’s DFA account since 2003.) Marquez said the SoS office is not planning to buy machines in the near future and is awaiting new federal standards for voting machines expected in June. He alluded to the June 1 deadline for the SoS to certify new voting machines in NM in its every-two-years window for doing such.

He said the VVPB-equipped Sequoia Edge, used in Nevada’s 11/04 election, is HAVA compliant but not yet certified in NM. He said the Edge costs $3500 plus $500-$1,000 for the printer, and $50,000 total for the software and licensing for the state. He said NM has 4,000 voting machines but only 1,500-2,000 would need retrofitting or replacement to provide VVPBs.

We will advise you about the next Key Meeting as soon as we know. Meanwhile watch the Legislature website and your e-mails. (To get on the email update lists about NM election reform, send an email to vvnm@yahoogroups.com or update@uvotenm.org.)

More info on Verfied Voting New Mexico
https://vvnm.org