New Mexico’s election has been ranked best in the nation according to a project by MIT.
But there’s still room for improvement, according to Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver. She spoke during an interim legislative meeting on Tuesday about presidential election results and recommendations going forward.
Election Day is over, but the state’s provisional ballots are still being counted. Toulouse Oliver said there are currently 921,342 ballots cast, with a 66% turnout of voters this year, which is slightly lower than the last presidential election.
Toulouse Oliver reported that during this presidential election the state was able to implement expanded voting systems checks, online nominating petition signature gathering, and poll worker pay increases.
“As far as we know, we had more than 52,000 folks utilize same-day registration and more than 25,000 on Election Day, which is just beyond what we ever anticipated,” she said.
Her office put more server power behind polling places to help county clerks deal with the crush.
“So I think as a collective [of] election administrators at the state level and at the county level, we know what our homework is. I think the clerks know what their homework is to do,” she said. “And then, of course, we moved everything to paper, and that sped things up.”
Looking towards the upcoming legislative session in January, Toulouse Oliver said the state needs to prioritize county clerk training, having municipal elections at the same time, and emergency election procedures in the event of natural disasters.
“What we have now is, if you're a first responder, you can totally go to apply for an electronic ballot and receive that, what we don't have is the ability for voters to do that,” she said.
State Rep. John Block (R-Otero) asked Toulouse Oliver whether requiring voter identification could be a concern and if that issue needs to be brought up in the upcoming session. But she said there is little need for it.
“We don't know and have never been given any real evidence,” she said. “If evidence were to be provided that that particular policy would solve a major problem in the state, of course, we would support it wholeheartedly.”
On January 6, 2024, Congress will convene to count the electoral votes in a joint session.
And a post-election audit will happen sometime between November 18 and December 2. That’s when randomly selected precincts will be audited by an independent CPA firm. Clerks will be advised, and will go through the process of the voting system check and public viewing will be allowed.
Support from the coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
