SANTA FE – New Mexico’s Supreme Court is considering competing proposals to increase reliance on balloting by mail in efforts to limit the coronavirus’ spread and preserve voting rights in the state’s June 2 primary, with arguments by video conference and a possible decision scheduled on Tuesday.
The pace of coronavirus infections in New Mexico is expected to peak in late May under current statistical modeling presented by state health officials.
That puts the pandemic on a collision course with New Mexico’s primary, amid a state-by-state partisan legal fight about how citizens can safely cast their ballots if the coronavirus outbreak persists into the November election.
The state’s Democratic primary is likely to decide who succeeds U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján in the Democrat-dominated 3rd Congressional District in northern New Mexico. Luján is the presumed Democratic nominee to succeed retiring Sen. Tom Udall.
Republican primary voters are deciding between two contenders who hope to retake a congressional swing district held by U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in southern New Mexico. The entire Legislature is up for elections this year, with an upswing in primary-election challenges.
Republicans including state party Chairman Steve Pearce view the looming court decision as precedent-setting for future elections as they advocate for absentee mail-in balloting by request only.
A proposal from a majority of county clerks – supported by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver – would scuttle traditional, in-person voting and instead distribute mail-in ballots to nearly all registered voters, with the limited exceptions where election-related mail has bounced back. That plan also would provide so-called voting service centers for registered voters to turn in absentee ballots by hand, fill out provisional ballots and seek other assistance.
“We pointed out that the public health efforts ought to be considered and that we take that very seriously,” Lujan Grisham told reporters last week.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover.
Advocacy groups for voters’ rights including the New Mexico League of Women Voters petitioned the court in favor a mixed voting system of mail-in balloting, protocols for in-person delivery of absentee ballots and alternative “mobile” voting centers in areas where mail in unreliable.
Many households across extremely remote areas have no traditional street addresses – one reason New Mexico is ranked as the most hard-to-count population by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Decocrat-led Legislature has shied away from convening a special session to rewrite voting regulations for public health emergencies, citing coronavirus transmission risks.
New Mexico typically offers early in-person voting in the weeks leading up to an election, traditional election-day voting and absentee voting upon request. In special elections at the local level, election regulators can issue mail-in ballots more broadly to registered voters without receiving requests for them.
Republicans are raising doubts about the accuracy of voter rolls and have said that sending ballots to all registered voters will result in distribution to bad addresses and dead people.
Attorney Carter Harrison, who filed legal paperwork on behalf of the GOP, accused some Democrats in New Mexico of using the coronavirus to promote a national agenda of universal mail-in balloting.
He compiled the statistics on returned ballots from special elections in metropolitan Bernalillo and rural Lincoln counties to provide what he called evidence of inaccuracies.
“They just send everyone on the rolls effectively an absentee ballot,” Harrison said. “Now the reason that’s a problem is we have – I don’t want to say poorly maintained – but out-of-date voter rolls here in New Mexico.”
The Democrat-led secretary of state’s office that oversees elections and voter registration asserted that voter rolls are more accurate than ever because of online renewals, automated registration at motor vehicle offices and other reforms.
Agency spokesman Alex Curtas described robust state prohibitions against “vote harvesting” – in which people collect and manipulate absentee ballots. In New Mexico, only voters, caregivers or immediate family members are legally permitted turn in ballots.
