Matt Chandler
Attorney General Gary King is becoming notorious for protecting Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s best interests, not New Mexicans. This week, Attorney General King once again backed scandal-plagued Secretary Herrera by agreeing with her that a write-in candidate for governor of New Mexico is constitutional “on its face.”
It isn’t.
Our Constitution is not a mere suggestion. It’s a mandate adopted by the people, for the people. The Constitution of New Mexico, in article V, contains two separate provisions on this issue. First, “The Governor and Lt. Governor shall be elected jointly by the casting … of a single vote.” Second, “The joint candidates having the highest number of votes cast for governor and lieutenant governor … shall be declared duly elected.”
So, each registered voter “shall” have the opportunity to vote for both a governor and lieutenant governor, together as one unit, and the joint ticket receiving the most votes “shall” be elected.
In 1968, the Supreme Court of New Mexico agreed. It ruled on a case known as State ex rel. Chavez v. Evans, where a candidate did not have a running mate, and the Court stated plainly: it means what it says. The Constitution “require(s) that the Governor and Lt. Gov. be voted on as a unit.” The Supreme Court stated that it was the intention of the people of our state to require the governor and the lieutenant governor to be voted on as a unit, and lacking one of them there can be no candidate.
Disenfranchising voters
The problem does not lie with write-in candidate. He timely filed his declaration of candidacy, but Secretary Herrera apparently did not advise him that a running mate was required. It is the secretary of state’s duty to know the law and to advise candidates and the public appropriately. So now the write-in candidate stands as a certified candidate who legally cannot win because he does not have a running mate.
Now Attorney General King and Secretary Herrera are trying to cover up her mistake by saying that regardless of what the Constitution or existing laws say, the write-in candidate can run alone. They joined together with a statement that they are afraid to “disenfranchise” voters who might choose to vote for the write-in candidate.
What Attorney General King and Secretary Herrera fail to recognize is that unconstitutionally certifying a write-in governor candidate without a running mate, only serves to disenfranchise those same voters, because they also have a constitutional right to vote for a lieutenant governor. And as equally important, without a running mate, the Constitution does not allow the write-in candidate to win no matter how many votes he gets.
Attorney General King and Secretary Herrera are forcing supporters of the write-in candidate to vote for him as governor yet surrender their constitutional right to vote for a lieutenant governor, and if he were to gather enough votes to win, New Mexicans would be in some kind of yet-to-be-seen, unconstitutional appointment process.
Reading and applying the Constitution literally
Attorney General King, in a prepared statement, said that keeping the write-in candidate off the ballot would amount to a “ban on write-in Governor candidates.” Not true. New Mexico has a rich history of allowing write-in candidates for governor, and an election policy that creates a simple process to achieve it. The Constitution doesn’t seek to “ban” anything. It merely requires that each candidate for governor have a running mate in the event they are elected.
Attorney General King, the state’s chief law officer, and Secretary Herrera, the state’s chief elections officer, are placing all county clerks, in all of New Mexico’s 33 counties, in a profoundly compromising position. If the county clerks count write-in votes, they are directly violating the Constitution and setting a dangerous precedent. If they do not, those votes are simply thrown away and those voters truly will be disenfranchised.
Here’s the bottom line: Our state’s Constitution should be read and applied literally, and it should not be used as a cocktail napkin to map out ways to gain political advantages or disadvantages. Attorney General King and Secretary Herrera are politically spinning a problematic web of election policy in addition to playing roulette with one of our state’s most historic elections.
When politicians play games with the constitution, everyone loses. Saying that, one thing is certain: This problem has an obvious solution – the constitutional one.
Chandler is the Republican candidate for attorney general.