HB 4 Lead Sponsor House Speaker Javier Martínez
By DANIEL J. CHACON
The Santa Fe New Mexican
An elections bill that stirred controversy and sparked a complaint last year against a high-profile state senator from Albuquerque is off to a fast start this time around.
House Bill 4, which would automatically register qualified electors to vote after they complete a transaction at the Motor Vehicle Division, among other provisions, cleared its first legislative hurdle, the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee, on a party-line, 6-3 vote Wednesday.
In addition to expanding automatic voter registration, HB 4 would create a permanent absentee voter list, reinstate voting rights for felons immediately upon their release from incarceration and make Election Day a state holiday.
The bill also would enact the Native American Voting Rights Act, which would, among other things, allow voters living on tribal land to designate a tribal government building as their mailing address.
“Do we have individuals who do not have a postal address?” Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque, asked Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver.
“Unfortunately, yes,” she replied.
“I didn’t know that,” he said.
Supporters of the bill, which is being sponsored by House Democratic leaders and the new chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, where the measure faced delays last year, are confident it will reach Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk.
House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, the lead sponsor, said the bill lawmakers are considering this year is “much different” than last year’s.
“It’s a lot tighter,” Martínez said.
“We worked over the interim diligently [with] a lot of partners in the room to get it to a place where I think it’s a very common-sense voting access bill,” he said. “There are things that are not included with this bill that we had in the previous one that we heard from our colleagues really gave folks a lot of heartburn, so we’ve separated some of those issues.”
Last year’s bill, for example, included a provision that would have allowed 16-year-olds to vote. That is now a standalone bill.
Martínez said moving the bill early and with more time to spare in a 60-day session as opposed to last year’s 30-day session will help its chances of passing both chambers of the Legislature.
“I think the biggest difference is that we’ve really taken the time to listen to all sides, understand what the concerns were last year and accommodate those fears and concerns into what we see today,” he said.
Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, who was partly blamed for getting the bill derailed last year, may not stand in the way despite worries he might introduce a substitute bill or a series of amendments.
“I haven’t read the bill and am not involved in election policy this session,” he wrote in a text message.
Ivey-Soto, the former chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, wrote he wasn’t a roadblock last year, either.
“Last year, I came to the Capitol against doctor’s orders after being hospitalized for diverticulitis just to move the voting rights bill out of the Rules Committee, so I clearly have not stood in the way of the bill in the past,” he wrote.
The bill ensnared Ivey-Soto in controversy last year when a lobbyist accused him of deliberately stalling the legislation after she confronted him about years-old groping allegations, which Ivey-Soto has denied. Ivey-Soto stepped down from his chairmanship amid calls for his resignation following the allegations from the lobbyist and other women who accused him of inappropriate behavior.
During Wednesday’s committee meeting, which followed a hearing for public testimony last week, Republican lawmakers raised concerns about the provision to expand automatic voter registration.
Rehm said there are individuals who don’t want to be registered to vote, including for religious purposes. After qualified electors are automatically registered to vote, they will receive a postcard about a month later allowing them to opt out.
“I think that is backwards,” Rehm said. “The person should be opting in.”
Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, introduced an amendment to require voters to show identification at the polls.
“Voter ID would just add a layer of protection to ensure that our vote is secure and make sure that all legal votes count,” said Block, adding he’s introduced a separate bill to require voter ID.
The committee shot down Block’s amendment, also on a party-line 6-3 vote.
Martínez said after Block’s amendment failed that requiring voters to show ID at the polls is unnecessary.
“The impetus for things like voter ID is voter fraud,” he said. “I’m still waiting for the first case of voter fraud to pop up, and it just doesn’t exist. The problem is actually the opposite. People feel like they can’t access the ballot box, and sometimes they literally cannot. That’s why we’re doing this.”
Toulouse Oliver called the new bill “more streamlined” and said it addresses “very targeted but meaningful policies” that will make it easier to vote in New Mexico.
“Last year, the bill that the governor and I proposed was really sort of a top-down strategy, and it was full of a lot of different things that had to do with the voting process,” she said. “This is a much more organic, grassroots [and] coalition-driven piece of legislation.”
Another sponsor, Rep. D. Wonda Johnson, D-Crownpoint, noted the bill got “very close” to passing last year.
“In the months since then, we have been working closely with tribal communities, election officials and community advocates on this bill,” she said in a statement.
“I feel confident that we will get this important legislation across the finish line in this 60-day session,” she added.
Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.
