Bills aiming to create broader and safer participation in New Mexico elections continued to move swiftly in both chambers of the Legislature Monday.
The most significant changes to the election code this session are proposed in House Bill 4, the New Mexico Voting Right Act, which would create an automatic voter registration system, a permanent absentee voter list, and streamline re-enfranchisement for people released from prison for a felony.
In addition to making Election Day a school holiday, it would codify the rule that counties must have at least two ballot drop boxes unless they get a waiver. Co-sponsor, Sen. Katy Duhigg, (D-Bernalillo & Sandoval) told the Senate Rules committee that the Native American Voting Rights Act is also a “central component” of the legislation.
“It really helps address inequities in voter access for New Mexico’s tribal areas and the rest of the state,” she said.
The bill passed its first Senate committee hearing on a 5-2 vote Monday after getting exclusively Democratic approval from the House of Representatives last week.
During Monday’s committee hearing, Republican Sen. Greg Baca took issue with the idea that automatic voter registration could help relieve barriers to participation for people of color and other populations underrepresented in New Mexico’s electorate.
“Honestly, I find it insulting a little bit that we’re talking about minorities and Hispanics and things like that,” he told the bill’s sponsors. “That we have some inability to read a voter registration card and fill it out.”
Duhigg told Baca that New Mexico’s low rankings nationally for voter registration numbers shows that, “filling out that voter registration card apparently is a burden for a whole lot of people in New Mexico.”
Baca also argued that the state shouldn’t spend resources on making it simpler for previously incarcerated people to re-register to vote by offering them the option when they get set up with a new state identification as they exit prison.
“Can they not drive down to the county clerk’s office, or walk over there, or get it by mail? I just don’t understand what the difficulty is,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing that somebody has to go through a little bit of effort to acquire the most prized right that we have in this country.”
Co-sponsor, Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Bernalillo), said her team believes the number of formerly incarcerated people in New Mexico who would be impacted by the law could number as high as 17,000.
There’s still about three weeks left for HB 4 to be heard by a second committee and get a vote on the Senate floor before reaching the governor’s desk if it’s to become law. Republican Sen. Cliff Pirtle, who voted it down, said the measure is moving too fast.
“I mean, I still have bills that haven’t had a hearing in this committee, and yet you’re going to take this thing and spike the football in front of my face and pass such a partisan piece of legislation,” he said. “I think it's just extremely disrespectful.”
Last year a similar bill hit the Senate floor with only hours to spare and failed due to a GOP filibuster.
Meanwhile in the other chamber, a few proposals that aim to make elections safer got their first hearings in the House Monday.
The House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee unanimously approved Senate Bill 43, which shields people who work at the polls or Secretary of State’s Office from intimidation. The protections already exist for voters, along with poll watchers and challengers. Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark said her office has seen “a couple of incidents where bad judgment unfortunately ruled the day” that this law may have prevented.
“Someone followed a poll worker within three inches of her bumper, is what she said, and she was absolutely terrified,” Clark told the panel during public comment. “While I don’t know if we can regulate good judgment, I do think it’s extremely important to make it very clear to everyone that poll workers are doing an essential duty and we need to protect them.”
That same committee had less unified support for Senate Bill 44, which would prohibit guns within 100 feet of a polling place, voting 4-3 to pass it with Republicans opposed.
“Having guns mixed into polling places, given the toxicity of our election cycles these days, it just doesn’t make sense,” co-sponsor, Democratic Sen. Peter Wirth, told the panel.
Guns already can’t be carried at schools and Wirth argued this law creates consistency across all polling locations.
“This bill came to me from constituents who — during this last election cycle — were working at the polls, experienced folks with guns, and expressed extreme concern about that.” he said. “[They] brought it to my attention, and I took a look at the law. And it just seemed to me it didn’t make sense to have one set of rules for polling places in certain places and another set somewhere else.”
Republican Rep. Bill Rehm introduced an amendment during the hearing that would have exempted those with a concealed carry permit from the law, since the firearm wouldn’t be visible. Wirth said similar amendments were defeated three times on the Senate side, and Rehm’s went on to fail as well.
Rehm and Republican Rep. John Block both ran through several hypothetical issues with the proposal during the committee’s debate, including people unknowingly parking near a polling location with a gun in their car or a gun store being located next to a polling place in a strip mall. Wirth said laws should deal with broad issues.
“We put the law in place. And then, to the extent that things need to be tweaked via [regulations], that’s what will happen,” he said.
Both bills must pass the House Judiciary Committee before getting a full vote of the House. The Legislature adjourns March 18th at noon.