Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver recently announced the introduction of legislation that aims to protect and expand voting rights in New Mexico in a release.
The legislation, dubbed the New Mexico Voting Rights Act or Senate Bill 8, has numerous measures that seek to facilitate voting in the state, including extending online voter registration, extending protections for Native voters and establishing a permanent absentee voter ballot list.
“Protecting voting rights is essential to upholding our democracy and ensuring New Mexicans’ voices are heard,” Lujan Grisham stated in the press release. “It is more important than ever to safeguard access to the ballot box – while voting rights are under attack across the country, New Mexico is taking every action to protect and expand them."
The press release also states that the legislation would "modernize" New Mexico and expand voting rights to counter a “wave of anti-democratic sentiment nationwide that includes the implementation of restrictive and discriminatory ballot access policies in other states.”
Additionally, the legislation includes provisions that authorize 16-year-olds to vote in local elections and grants voting rights to non-incarcerated felons.
Other measures include the adoption of a system that automatically registers eligible people to vote when they complete a transaction at the Motor Vehicle Department.
Lujan Grisham and Oliver have already worked with the legislature to expand voter access through measures such as enacting same-day voter registration, expanding automated voter registration, and introducing legislation in 2020 to ensure secure and expeditious absentee voting for the first election during the COVID-19 pandemic.