By Nicole Maxwell

Posted Sept. 19, 2024

 

The Nov. 5 general election is less than two months away and with it comes the question of election preparedness and confidence.

 

New México Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, along with five other secretaries of state, testified before the U.S. House Administration Committee about the upcoming election.

 

“The purpose of the hearing is to fully review and explore the status of states’ election preparedness,” House Administration Committee Chairman Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wisconsin, said.

 

Toulouse Oliver delivered shortened remarks based on her submitted statement.

 

“More people are now aware of elections, and more awareness can bring more participation, understanding and innovation,” Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said. “However, because of what has now been years of false election claims and ideological attempts to discredit our voting systems and processes, much of the heightened awareness of elections is now colored by conspiracies, misinformation and frankly, outright lies.”

 

The main issue the committee discussed was noncitizens voting.

 

“It is already illegal for noncitizens to register and vote,” Toulouse Oliver said.

 

In New México, every voter must be registered with the SOS. This registration includes the potential voter establishing that they are a citizen of the U.S. and a New México resident, according to the SOS website.

 

When a person is registered to vote, the SOS sends them a voter identification card which, although not required at the polls, helps the poll workers to pull up voter information to verify the voter’s registration and to print out the appropriate ballot for that voter.

 

“Noncitizen voting does not happen in any systemic way in New México or in the nation more broadly,” Toulouse Oliver said. “And, in fact, a Heritage Foundation study, for instance, reported only 24 instances of noncitizen voting nationwide over a 20 year period, between 2003 and 2023 however, voters believe noncitizen voting does occur, and this impacts their overall confidence in elections.”

 

Steil praised the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or the SAVE Act, which would require voters to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections.

 

The New México congressional delegation, all Democrats, voted against the SAVE Act in July. It is currently in the Senate.

 

When voters are misinformed about how voting and elections work, they lose trust in the system itself.”
New México Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver

 

It is also part of H.R. 9494 which seeks to extend federal appropriations until March 2025 with a portion related to noncitizen voting.

 

The legislation was expected to be brought to a vote Wednesday but was scrapped by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, according to Reuters.

 

The legislation could be brought back to the House floor for a vote as early as this week. Congress has until Sept. 30 to pass a stopgap spending bill or the government will shut down.

 

Steil asked Toulouse Oliver if requiring photo identification to vote would increase voter confidence.

 

“I don’t believe so,” Toulouse Oliver said. “It’s not a magic bullet.”

 

The White House Office of Management and Budget sent out a Statement of Administration Policy that stated that if the resolution, as it currently stands, made it to President Joe Biden’s desk, the president would veto the legislation.

 

The statement said “it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections—it is a Federal crime punishable by prison and fines. This behavior is wrong and the law clearly prohibits it. In addition, making a false claim of citizenship or unlawfully voting in an election is punishable by removal from the United States and a permanent bar to admission. States already have effective safeguards in place to verify voters’ eligibility and maintain the accuracy of voter rolls.”

 

Educating voters about how elections work in New Mexico has been a strategy Toulouse Oliver has employed in the last few years.

 

“When voters are misinformed about how voting and elections work, they lose trust in the system itself. Through a multi-year research partnership with the University of New Mexico that tracks voter attitudes and knowledge across election cycles, we found there are knowledge gaps,” Toulouse Oliver said.

 

The SOS website has a Rumor vs. Reality page which is updated periodically, most recently to include how President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race will affect the Nov. 5 ballot. It also has information including how New México’s elections are certified, how voter information is protected and independent post-election auditing.

 

“Let me speak clearly now for every American to hear: our elections are secure,” House Administration Ranking Member Joe Morelle, D-New York, said. “Election officials, their staff and poll workers, need and deserve our support. And voters deserve truthful information about when, where and how to register and how to cast their ballots, and they deserve truthful information about the integrity of our elections.”

 

Other speakers included Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, a Republican, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, and West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, a Republican.

 

New México’s election laws

The legislature passed one major election-based change this year: banning most firearms from polling places.

 

The bill, SB 4, was approved with amendments and signed into law by the governor earlier this year.

 

The 2023 legislative session included some election reform bills including the voter rights protections that included the Native American Voting Rights Act and enhances voter registration systems and voter data privacy, restores voting rights to formerly incarcerated felons, created a voluntary permanent absentee ballot list which allows voters who usually vote by absentee ballot to be on a list so they don’t have to reapply for each election, sets up automatic voter registration when updating address or presenting documents at Motor Vehicle Divisions and other state agencies and designates Election Day as a school holiday.

 

Another bill passed in 2023 was one that allows electronic signatures for nominating petitions for candidates to qualify for the primary, makes public officials’ home addresses confidential on election-related and campaign reporting documents, adds specifications for election-related Inspection of Public Records requests, creates an election security program, updates procedures for absentee ballots and improves training for election challengers and watchers.

 

The third bill passed in 2023 prohibits intimidating election officials which came about following alleged harassment incidents following the 2020 election.

 

For more information, the 2023 New México Election Handbook can be found here.

 

For more information about New México elections visit the New México Secretary of State’s website.

 

Contact your local county clerk’s office for more information about the Nov. 5 election in your county or to check on or update your voter registration, a process that can also be done online at NMVote.org.

 

Nicole Maxwell is a Politics/Legislative Reporter for New Mexico Political Report. This story was originally published by New Mexico Political Report.