SB678 on House Voters & Elections Agenda Today

According to Charlotte Roybal:
The election reform bill passed by the Senate will be heard in the House Voters and Elections committee this morning, which starts at 8 AM. It sounds like SB678 will be the bill and that HB1063, Rep. Ed Sandoval's bill, will be dropped. There are changes in the bill to look out for. I'm sure the Santa Fe contingent will keep us posted.

Also, according to Leland Lehrman of Santa Fe's Mother Media:
In an interview with Billy Sparks, Governor Richardson's Press Secretary, Mother Media has learned that the Governor is "encouraged" by the passage of the Senate Election Reform bill. This bill contains Voter Verifiable Paper Trails, Automatic Machine Audits, Protection for Provisional Voters and is known as Senate Judiciary Committee Substitute for 678, 718 et al.

Information from Senator Ortiz y Pino's legislative aide Harry Pavlides indicate that the Governor has publicly weighed in with the Congressional leadership indicating his support for this Senate Election Reform Bill. According to Pavlides, the bill is "wired," short-hand for set to pass. 

Mother Media has endorsed the bill and will broadcast live three minute updates from the Roundhouse on KTRC 1260 AM Santa Fe. Look for us at the top of the hour from 11AM - 4PM. We will directly follow Air America news.

The House Voters and Elections Committee will meet today, Thursday, at 8AM to vote on the bill and it will probably make it to the House floor for a full vote late today or early Friday morning. Mother Media encourages citizens to come to the Roundhouse to catch the action in person.

While amendments sponsored by the Republicans have made it into the Senate bill, it remains possible the Republicans will vote against it en masse today. Democrats are not likely to defect, so a party line vote in Voter and Elections would send the bill to the House floor for a full vote.

Opinions differ regarding whether the House will be more difficult to pass than the Senate, but senior sources indicate that it will be a terrific battle. The debate in the Senate lasted three hours. It remains essential that citizens in favor of election reform and voter protection call their Representatives to urge support for this bill. The Capitol Switchboard phone is 505.986.4300, legislators can be found on the web at https://legis.state.nm.us.

Provided the bill clears the  House, the final step will be clearing the final Senate Committee to which it is referred. It will probably go to the Senate Judiciary Committee which already passed it 5-4 in a party line vote. Judiciary Committee Chairman Cisco McSorley has been an ally of Election Reform from the beginning.