Video: How to Vote in NM in November Election

This is a guest blog by Michelle Meaders:
I just discovered that there is a video on the Bernalillo County Clerk's website showing how to use the new paper ballot machines. To see the video, look at the bottom of the right-hand column on the County Clerk's web page and click on the title: How to Vote for the Nov. Election: video

We will be using paper ballots for both Early and Election Day voting this year. They have been used for Absentee ballots for years, but Absentee voters don't get to try again if their ballot is mis-marked (or if they don't do everything right in getting their ballot and packaging it to return it). You can find out if your absentee ballot was counted, but by then it's too late to do anything about it. There is a new law this year that lets absentee voters take their ballot to their polling place on election day, if they forget to return it in time.

Certain disabled voters will instead use the Automark, a special machine that generates a filled-out paper ballot which is counted like the others.  You can read about that here.

I spoke with staff at the County Clerk's office and learned other useful information on voting:

• If you take your absentee ballot to the polls, it goes in with the other absentee ballots and doesn't get opened and counted at your polling place.
• If you lose your absentee ballot and/or want to vote in person at the polls after all, you must use a Provisional Ballot at the polls. Provisional Ballots are also counted later, so you don't get the advantage of being able to re-vote if you make a mistake, like you do in person.
• If you make a mistake in marking your ballot (such as voting for more than one candidate in a race) and don't have a chance to replace it, the rest of your ballot is hand-tabulated, so the rest of your votes aren't lost. This covers Absentee, Provisional, and possible tabulating machine problems or power failures at the polls.
• I was concerned about some people not being able to read the print on the ballot, or not being very good readers, or not having a steady hand to mark the lines on the ballot. They told me anyone can ask to use the AutoMark machines, where the ballot is read to you through headphones with a volume control.  However, they said a genuinely handicapped person can bump a not-so-handicapped one from the line.