{"id":2629,"date":"2007-12-11T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-11T20:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/12\/commissioners-ask-guv-to-seek-election-law-changes\/"},"modified":"2007-12-11T14:45:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-11T20:45:00","slug":"commissioners-ask-guv-to-seek-election-law-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/12\/commissioners-ask-guv-to-seek-election-law-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Commissioners ask guv to seek election-law changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> commissioners are asking Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> to push for a change in the state\u2019s voter identification law during the 2008 legislative session because they say the current law will create new problems and disenfranchise voters. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In the last general election, voters could provide an identification card such as a driver\u2019s license to vote, or they could verbally provide information that included a \u201cunique identifier\u201d \u2013 the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

However, during this year\u2019s legislative session, that changed. Under the new law, approved by lawmakers and the governor this year, instead of using the last four digits of a Social Security number as a unique identifier, voters will instead be assigned a randomly generated, eight-digit combination of numbers, letters and other characters.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The new law also outlaws the use of dates of birth and Social Security numbers for voting, though they can still be used for voter registration.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

After hearing from the head of the county elections bureau and an attorney who works on voter issues for the county Democratic Party, commissioners voted 5-0 to approve a resolution<\/a> asking Richardson to \u201ccall upon the 2008 Legislature to pass simple, clear and comprehensive changes to the New Mexico Election Code, which will protect the rights of all registered voters to vote at polls, by absentee ballot or by provisional ballot.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

During 30-day sessions, such policy changes can only be deliberated if the governor agrees to allow it.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Attorney Peter Ossorio and Elections Bureau head Lynn Ellins told commissioners that the new law is certain to lead to all sorts of problems with Election Day, absentee and provisional voting:<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 On Election Day, Ellins anticipates a number of people showing up to vote without having the card that includes their randomly generated identifier in hand. The identifier will be difficult to memorize, and people won\u2019t be able to call and get the number, so they\u2019ll have to pick it up in person from the county<\/st1:placetype> Bureau<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> of Elections and then return to their polling place to vote. That\u2019s certain to create a backlog and make voting more difficult, both said.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Those who travel away from New Mexico and need to vote absentee, if they forget their unique identifiers, won\u2019t be able to vote, both men said, because they\u2019ll have no way to obtain the number from the Bureau of Elections.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Though the new law requires the use of the random identifier and outlaws the use of dates of birth and Social Security numbers for voting, the Legislature did not change a separate law requiring that those who fill out provisional ballots include birth dates and Social Security numbers, so the laws are conflicting. That could lead to a legal challenge. In addition, Ellins said, figuring out whether to accept provisional ballots using the random numbers will take significantly longer than when using Social Security numbers, and the ballots are sometimes the deciding votes that delay final election results, so there\u2019s always pressure to count them as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Elections staffs in Bernalillo and Santa Fe<\/st1:city> counties are working with the office in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> to push for changes, Ellins said. Ossorio said changes are necessary and, if they\u2019re not made during the 2008 session, come June 2008 \u201cthere\u2019s going to be an election meltdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Update, Dec. 12 at 8:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I neglected to report on Tuesday that the resolution was sponsored by Commissioner Bill McCamley<\/a>. In a news release from his congressional campaign, he called the new requirement of a randomly generated identifier \u201ca very bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt could lead to the disenfranchisement of a large number of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> voters, particularly elderly voters, low-income voters and New Mexicans serving in the military who often vote by absentee ballot,\u201d he said. \u201cWe cannot allow this to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do\u00f1a Ana County commissioners are asking Gov. Bill Richardson to push for a change in the state\u2019s voter identification law during the 2008 legislative session because they say the current law will create new problems and disenfranchise voters. In the last general election, voters could provide an identification card such as a driver\u2019s license to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}