Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver recently introduced Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), which would expand and protect New Mexico voting rights by increasing online voter registration, creating a permanent voluntary absentee ballot request list and offering protections to native voters.
The bill, also known as the New Mexico Voting Rights Act, has faced criticism from some who claim its passage would compromise the integrity of elections in the state.
“Democrats in the New Mexico Legislature are poised to ram through a measure that would irreparably harm the integrity and credibility of elections in the state,” Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead said in a press release. “SB 8 automatically lets felons vote the moment they walk out of prison.”
Snead said the bill would mandate error-prone automatic voter registration, lacks sufficient safeguards to remove inaccurate registrations from the rolls and would automatically mail ballots to voters on a new permanent absentee list.
“These policies are an invitation to fraud and chaos," Snead said. "The bill’s proponents even tried to lower the voting age to 16, a measure that was stripped out but could very well return.”
Moving forward, he said, the passage of SB 8 would have a negative impact on the state’s election system.
“This legislation would be a disaster for New Mexico’s election system," Snead said. "Rather than working to secure their elections with tried-and-true measures, state legislators risk undermining the public’s confidence in state elections. This effort must be rejected.”
In a Feb. 8 report by the New Mexico Sun, New Mexico Business Coalition President Carla Sonntag underscored Snead’s concerns, stating the bill raises significant constitutional and legal issues, though it is still being fast-tracked in the state.
The Honest Elections Project is a Washington, D.C.-based organization focused on advancing election reforms that its website states make it "easy to vote, and hard to cheat."
Snead formerly worked for the Heritage Foundation as a senior policy analyst at the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, focusing on issues such as election security and integrity.