Democracy for New Mexico

Same Day Voter Registration Passes House Consumer & Public Affairs

From the House Democratic Leadership:
Santa Fe, NM – A bill that would allow same-day voter registration was heard in House Consumer & Public Affairs this past week. HB 860, introduced by Rep. Jim Trujillo (D-Santa Fe), was passed on to the Voters and Elections Committee with no recommendation with a 6 to 0 vote.

House Bill 860 permits same-day registration in primary and general elections at a polling place in the county in which the voter resides. It would then allow the voter to cast a provisional ballot. Unlike other same-day registration proposals made earlier in the session [most of them now tabled], this bill would not require a photo or government ID to be presented.

Rep. Trujillo said, “Same-day voter registration will increase participation in our democracy. Everyone is very busy these days and it is important that citizens who want to vote be allowed to do so. This bill will also serve to increase the voter roles. Once someone registers they will be able to vote in all following elections. It’s important that we do every thing we can to bring people into the process.”

Eight states allow registration and voting on the day of an election. In New Mexico a voter must be registered 28 days before any type of election to qualify to vote in that election.

Same Day Voter Registration Passes NM House Consumer & Public Affairs

From the NM House Leadership:
Two bills that would allow same-day voter registration were presented in House Consumer & Public Affairs yesterday. HB 394, introduced by Rep. Joseph Cervantes (D- Las Cruces), was tabled at his request. The second bill (HB 346) introduced by Rep. Mary Helen Garcia (D-Las Cruces) received a do pass recommendation with a vote of 4 to 3.

House Bill 346 permits same-day registration in primary and general elections at the polling place for the precinct in which the voter resides. The qualified voter would be allowed to complete a certificate of registration and cast a ballot with the presentation of a valid photo identification card, utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, student identification card or other government document, including identification issued by an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo.

Rep. Garcia said, “I would like to thank Rep. Cervantes for requesting that his bill be tabled. It was a coincidence that we both introduced bills that were almost identical. Rep. Cervantes is a true gentleman and I consider him a full partner in this same-day voter registration effort.”

In support of HB 346 Rep Cervantes said, “I believe that it is time to move beyond our outdated attitudes towards voting. Decades ago it took days and weeks to accurately maintain voting records. Today that work can be done in seconds. We must embrace technology because it makes it easier for a person to vote while ensuring the integrity of the system.”

Rep. Garcia said, “There are many groups who would benefit from same day voter registration. This includes our young people who move around so much and people with disabilities who often confront barriers to transportation. Many new citizens, people of color, or low-income voters are forced by circumstances to move frequently and they should not be disenfranchised by the system.”

Eight states allow registration and voting on the day of an election. Supporters say that the process increases voter turnout. In New Mexico a voter must be registered 28 days before any type of election to qualify to vote in that election.

“We can bank instantly at an ATM or on-line. Why should voting registration be less secure using the same type of technology?” concluded Rep. Cervantes.

Editor's Note: United Voters of NM, Vertified Voters NM and other election reform activists are supporting the same day voter registration bill. The bill goes next to the House Voters and Elections Committee. To contact members of that committee, click here.

Join The League's Rally for Clean Elections: Sign Up for Feb. 9 Bus to Santa Fe

From The League of Young Voters, Albuquerque:
Are you sick of dirty money in politics?  Are you tired of corporations dictating YOUR life? And most importantly, are you down with the LEAGUE?? If you answered "YES" to any (and hopefully all) of the questions above, why not join the League's Clean Election Campaign, and help us KEEP dirty money OUT of politics! Public Financing will:

• Reduce corruption and the influence of Big Industry and Corporate lobbying.
• Allow qualified leaders to run, who due to financial reasons may not have been able to before.
• Give the power back to voters by increasing their choices and reducing negative campaigning due to spending limits.

Your Legislators will be voting on this issue soon, its up to us to tell them what the people want.

Heres How You Can Help:

• Come up to Santa Fe for our League Clean Election Rally on February 9th.
• Help us get the word out about Clean Elections by volunteering with the League.
• Write letters to your local paper supporting Public Financed campaigns.

Give us a call and let us know how you can help. You can also signup for our bus to Santa Fe by clicking here.  You can also make your self heard immediately by sending your Senator a message to support Clean Elections.

To subscribe to The League's mailing list, go to: https://indyvoter.org/join.

Last Day for Early Voting in APS Board Election

This is the last day for early in-person for the Albuquerque Public Schools board election. The election is set for February 6, 2007 with consolidated polling places around the city. Today you can voted at any of the four early voting locations in Albuquerque that will be open from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM:

Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office
6th Floor, Room 6011
One Civic Plaza

APS City Centre
6400 Uptown Blvd NE

Plaza Ladera
5300 Sequoia NW Suite G

Paradise Hills Community Center
5901 Paradise Blvd NW
Note: Early Voting is in the West Annex building

Today is also the last day to request an absentee ballot and all such completed ballots must be received at the Bernalillo County Clerk's office by 7:00 PM Tuesday.

If you have any questions you can call the office of the Bernalillo County Clerk at 468-1290 or email them at clerk@bernco.gov.

Check our previous post for more information on the election and the candidates. To determine which APS district you reside in, click and enter your address.

The Albuquerque Tribune online has video interviews with board candidates.

Guest Blog: An Updated Voting Machine Audit Provision (SB179)

This is a Guest Blog submitted by Paul Stokes of United Voters of NM and Verified Voting NM, which were instrumental in gaining passage of last year's legislation that mandated the use of paper ballot voting systems in all NM counties:

An evaluation presented to the Election Reform Task Force of 2005 of the audit provision in the New Mexico Election Code revealed ambiguities and substantive issues that need to be addressed. In addition, changes are needed to make the audit compatible with our new paper ballot voting systems.

We have, therefore, developed a new audit provision to address these needs, and while we were at it, we developed a new audit concept that is just now gaining currency in the election integrity community. The essence of the concept is to randomly select a sample of voting machines in such a way that the size of the sample would assure that, if faulty machines existed, there would be a high probability (e.g., 90%) that at least one faulty machine would be in the sample. The sample size would be dependent on the margin between the winner and the loser - the larger the margin, the smaller the sample size needed to catch faulty voting machines that could change the winner.

If no errors are found in the sample, the winning candidate is selected based on the voting machine counts. If errors are found, then an election commission decides whether the magnitude of the errors is such that the election result might be reversed. If so, further sampling or a full recount would be called for, depending on the details of the errors. If the election commission decides that it would unlikely for the election to be reversed, no further recounting would occur, and the winner would be declared based on the original results, as corrected for errors found in the sample that was recounted.

Some features of audit provision are:

- It will cover votes cast by absentee ballots, at early voting sites, and during election day in a uniform way.

- Offices covered are the governor or president (whichever is on the ballot), the statewide office for which the winning margin is smallest, and the federal office for which the winning margin is smallest.

- An election commission will be formed consisting of the director of the bureau of elections, the attorney general or designee, the state auditor or designee, and three public members, one of whom is an expert in statistics and two of whom represent different nonpartisan voter information/education organizations.

- The election commission is responsible for establishing the rules for carrying out the audit, for overseeing the audit, and establishing standards and procedures for the audit.

This audit provision was selected by United Voters of New Mexico and Verified Voting New Mexico as one of their priorities for the 2007 Legislature. It was presented to the interim legislative committee on Courts, Corrections, and Justice, and was approved for the 2007 Legislature. Senator McSorley introduced legislation embodying the audit provision as Senate Bill 179. Representative Stewart has offered to carry the bill in the House.

You can help get this audit provision passed by writing your legislators, Senator McSorley, and Representative Stewart, and by attending Legislature committee sessions where the bill is being heard. Visit the NM Legislature website for contact information, bill tracking, etc.

Thanks, Paul Stokes

Editor's Note: This is a Guest Blog by Paul Stokes of Albuquerque. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a Guest Blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of our main page.

APS Mill Levy and Board Election Set for 2.06.07

The Albuquerque Public Schools will hold a two-mill levy election to pay for school maintenance and repairs on February 6, 2007. Info is available at the APS website. The APS Board will also elect members in Districts 1, 2 and 4 that day:

District 1: Southwest
Incumbent: Miguel Acosta, who is not seeking re-election
Candidates: Richard Ray Sanchez; Cecilia M. C. De Baca; and Dolores A. Griego

District 2: West/Northwest
Incumbent: Robert D. Lucero
Candidates: Robert D. Lucero; Cynthia L. Jones

District 4: Downtown, Albuquerque High, Highland High neighborhoods
Incumbent: Leonard DeLayo, not seeking re-election
Candidates: John Brannan Edward; Vanessa Alarid; Albuquerque attorney Marty Esquivel; businesswoman Pauline Nunez and Charles MacQuigg, a retired shop teacher

To determine your district and find your election day polling place, visit the website of the and enter your address. A complete list of election day polling places is available .

Early Absentee In-Person Voting for the election has begun at four convenient locations:

County Clerk’s Office
6th Floor, Room 6011
One Civic Plaza

APS City Centre
6400 Uptown Blvd NE

Plaza Ladera
5300 Sequoia NW Suite G

Paradise Hills Community Center
5901 Paradise Blvd NW
Note: Early Voting is in the West Annex building

The locations will be open between the hours of 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM through February 2, 200. Voters can also request an Absentee Ballot by calling 468-1291.

The APS/CNM Election will be held on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 with consolidated polling locations open from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Call 468-1291 for more information.

Daniel Ivey-Soto Hired as State Elections Director

NM Secretary of State Mary Herrera announced Friday that she's hired Albuquerque attorney Daniel Ivey-Soto as the new State Elections Director. Ivey-Soto is also the Second Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County. He replaces Ernie Marquez. According to an Albuquerque Journal report:

Ivey-Soto, 40, earned a law degree and master's of business administration from the University of New Mexico. Ivey-Soto, who once served as general counsel for the state Democratic Party, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for state auditor last year when the party's state central committee filled a vacancy on the ballot. As director of the elections bureau, Ivey-Soto will be responsible for running the state's election operations and administering election laws.

Maggie Toulouse Named Bernalillo County Clerk

Congratulations to Maggie Toulouse, who was appointed Bernalillo County Clerk to fill the rest of the term vacated by Mary Hererra, our new Secretary of State. Toulouse was chosen by the Bernalillo County Commission from among a dozen candidates. Toulouse was recently the Southwest campaign manager for the League of Conservation Voters. She was sworn in on January 2nd. You can read more about Toulouse in her recent guest blog on DFNM. KRQE News has some video and photos.

According to an Albuquerque Journal article,

Bernalillo County commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of her appointment. Favoring Toulouse were Deanna Archuleta, who made the nomination, as well as Teresa Córdova and Michael Brasher. Alan Armijo and Tim Cummins voted for Assistant City Clerk Kelli Fulgenzi for the job.

Toulouse said she intends to seek election as clerk in 2008. In the meantime, she said, she would run the clerk's office with "integrity, honesty and fairness."

34 Election Reform Organizations Urge Congress To Require Paper Ballots

From Vote Trust USA by Velvet Revolution and others:
Responding to the electronic voting machine failures that marred the 2006 elections, 34 non-partisan election reform organizations launched a new campaign urging Congress to enact legislation requiring a paper ballot for every vote cast. They expect this grassroots campaign to have broad public support and generate thousands of emails to the incoming Congress. (You can view the letter here and email it to your member of Congress.)

Many of the organizations have previously supported voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPAT), but now, like other citizens across the country, they recognize that electronic voting machines have been national mistake.

“The e-voting machines are a threat to democracy. Putting a VVPAT on them is nothing more than a band-aid. It’s like requiring a seat belt in a Ford Pinto. What good does it do when the Pinto explodes?” said Brad Friedman, who co-founded one of the organizations participating in the campaign.

The letter states: “In light of lessons learned during the 2006 primary and general elections -- with myriad contests resulting in uncertainty and thousands of voters in state after state turned away from the polls unable to cast a vote on DRE systems which failed throughout the day -- we now hold that a paper ballot, whether counted by optical-scan system or hand, is the minimum requirement for any Election Reform legislation in which voters may have confidence. Such a requirement is needed to help ensure Americans that every legally registered voter can vote, that every vote is recorded precisely as the voter intends, and that every vote is counted and, if necessary, re-counted accurately.

This year's elections have made crystal clear that electronic voting machines … caused massive disruptions, undermined the results of crucial elections, and forced thousands of voters to leave the polls without being able to exercise their franchise.”

The letter is signed by:

VoterAction.org
VotersUnite.org
VelvetRevolution.us
National Voting Rights Institute
Demos
TrueMajorityAction
Dolores Huerta Foundation
Broward Election Reform Coalition
California Election Protection Network
Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota
Coalition for Voting Integrity - Pennsylvania
Coloradoans For Voting Integrity
Commonweal Institute
Election Defense Alliance
Florida Fair Elections Coalition
Gathering To Save Our Democracy - Tennessee
Georgians for Verified Voting
Iowans for Voting Integrity
Mainstreet Moms (theMMOB.org)
N.C. Coalition for Verified Voting
Network of Citizens
New Yorkers for Verified Voting
Oregon Voter Rights Coalition
ProgressiveActionAlliance.org
Palm Beach Coalition for Election Reform
Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections - Florida
SAVEOurVotes.org - Maryland
Texas Safe Voting
TrueVoteMD
Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia
Verify The Vote Indiana
Virginia Verified Voting
VoteAllegheny
VotePA
VoteRescue of Texas
Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay

State Sen. Ortiz y Pino to Sponsor NM-01 Redistricting Bill?

Democratic State Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino wants to introduce a bill when the Legislature convenes in January that would redraw the boundaries of New Mexico's first congressional district. Repub Heather Wilson recently beat Dem Patricia Madrid in the NM-01 congressional race by only 862 votes.

Sen.Ortiz y Pino is proposing two different configurations meant to consolidate the area's urban and Native American components and make the district more cohesive as a metro area voting bloc. Proposed changes would include moving more rural parts of Torrance County, in the East mountains, to the second district and including more urban parts of Valencia County, south of Albuquerque, into NM-01. The district currently consists primarily of Bernalillo County, but also encompasses portions of Sandoval, Santa Fe, Torrance and Valencia counties. According to an Albuquerque Tribune article:

"The last election showed how uncohesive our current district is," Ortiz y Pino said.

"We'd like to not be splitting the Native Americans as we are now and we'd like metro Albuquerque to be metro, not urban and rural."

Sen. Ortiz y Pino's introduction of a redistricting bill appears contingent on gaining the support of Governor Bill Richardson and his fellow State Senators:

Ortiz y Pino said he hasn't talked to Senate leaders about the plans and hopes to present them to Gov. Bill Richardson soon. Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the governor will consider Ortiz y Pino's plans.

"The governor would prefer to wait until the next round of redistricting in 2010, but is willing to listen to Sen. Ortiz y Pino," he said.

However, Ortiz y Pino said he won't push the issue if Richardson doesn't want to. Redistricting in 2000 dragged on until a court ordered the current districting map in 2001.

"I would hold off if he (Richardson) asks me, but I'd like us to begin talking about it," Ortiz y Pino said.

Predictably, New Mexico's Repubs are against the plan. NM Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson of Las Cruces said, "I think it's wrong-headed. I think we do redistricting once in a decade, not right after an election." Pretty funny, considering that the now discredited Repub Tom DeLay hatched a non-census year plan that resulted in a nice gain of seats for his Party in Texas. Thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision on DeLay's plan, it's now been ruled constitutional (with limitations) to redraw boundaries in non-census years. I guess Repubs can't bring themselves to believe that what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

There's reportedly also some grumbling coming from several Dems in NM's southern second district, an area currently represented by Repub Steve Pearce. They believe Dems have a chance to win a congressional seat in the district given that voter registration figures there actually favor Dems. They claim adding more Repub-heavy areas to NM-02 could end those hopes.

Note: DFNM guest blogger 'Land of Enchantment' recently advocated for redistricting of NM-01 in this post. What do you think?