Unified Action—January 2008
Support Voter ID Reform Bill (SB 081)
The voter ID Reform Bill (SB 081) can be viewed here.
Sponsored by Voter Protection Steering Committee
Contact person: Peter Ossorio, 644-8436 Ossorios@zianet.com or Leonor Delgado, lady_p.i@comcast.net 523-0286

The Issue

In 2007, the Legislature made two changes to the Elections Code which will disenfranchise thousands of New Mexico voters—unless corrected this legislative session:

The first change means the approximately 10% of elderly, poor, or homeless voters who do not have physical identification, or the people who discover half way through the line they have left a wallet or purse in the car, will have to provide “a randomly generated series of numbers, letters or symbols” assigned by elections administrators.

Absentee voters must provide that same unfamiliar number before they can receive an absentee ballot--and before they can have their envelope opened and the vote counted when they mail it in.

The second change makes it a fourth degree felony for elections administrators to use dates of birth or any portion of the social security number for elections operations. Yet the outer envelope of provisional ballots requires precisely that information. Elections administrators and poll workers now are caught between instructing voters how to vote provisionally and possibly becoming felons.

What we are asking

Email or call these Senators and urge them to quickly pass SB 081—without last minute amendments that could create new problems for voters.

Upon completion of this action, please send an “I did it” to unifiedaction@pva-nm.org

Why your action is important

Unless the SB 081 is passed and signed into law before the legislature adjourns on February 14, the 2008 elections will be a “melt down.” There will be delays and frustrated voters leaving polling places, National Guard soldiers unable to vote absentee, and people who forgot to re-register when they moved or just are the victim of a clerical error may not have their provisional ballots opened and counted.

The Extra Mile

If you want to go the extra mile, thank: Senator Howie Morales howiemorales@yahoo.com for introducing SB 081, elections bureau chief Daniel Ivey-Soto Daniel.Ivey-Soto@state.nm.us for drafting the corrective changes and Representatives Nate Cote ncote@zianet.com, Jeff Steinborn jeff.steinborn@nmlegis.gov and Joni Gutierrez jonig@zianet.com for their continuing support since the problem surfaced in Spring 2007.