Voter fraud? No, just voting by mail
One more uncertainty in this upside-down world is the fate of the June primary election in New Mexico. With the pandemic disrupting life as we know it, just how the voting in June will proceed is unclear. Some two dozen county clerks have petitioned the New Mexico Supreme Court — with Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver endorsing their plan — to allow them to conduct the election almost entirely by mail, with accommodations for in-person voting for the disabled or those with a language barrier.
They want a vote-by-mail election to ensure there’s no spread of the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. With life essentially at a standstill for the next few weeks, uncertainty remains about how prevalent the virus will remain come June.
The question the court must answer is whether current state law would allow such an election. The clerks’ argument is that voting by mail is being used for special elections and that conducting a normal primary during a pandemic would risk the public health. They want laws in place for special elections to be used for this primary.
In the petition, they write that such an election would “violate their oath of office in order to protect the health and safety of their community.”
That might be a stretch because current mail-in voting election laws are about special, not primary or general, elections. However, it does seem appropriate to ask the state Supreme Court to see whether the issue of public health and safety could allow laws in place to be used for the primary. And the sooner justices decide, the better, because election planning must take place now.
What is less appropriate is a shrill, tonedeaf lawsuit by the state Republican Party raising the false specter of voter fraud as a potential drawback to voting by mail. Party Chairman Steve Pearce claims that it would be impossible to monitor votes in such a mail-in election.
If that’s the case, how was New Mexico lax enough to require voting by mail for special elections? Those ballots are no more secure, if, as Pearce claims, the state lacks proper technology for ensuring ballots are safeguarded. Voters use absentee ballots by mail as well. Are those insecure? Of course not. New Mexico has strict procedures to monitor mail-in ballots.
What we don’t need during a crisis — and this pandemic certainly qualifies — are people making sweeping generalizations, especially about the nearly nonexistent potential for voter fraud and claiming elections can be compromised when that’s not what is happening. County clerks, as required by law, maintain voter rolls — everything from checking moves, examining who died and taking them off the rolls, and suspending felons.
Republicans should spend more time making it possible for their supporters to vote and less time trying to stop other people from voting. It also should be noted the hackneyed claim of voter fraud is a trusty old standard the state Republican Party trots out every two and four years, but it’s particularly galling now because it makes politics, not people’s health, the apparent standard. And for a party that says it’s committed to the sanctity of human life, you’d think it would react differently to this crisis. This lawsuit is unbecoming to the party.
In the meantime, we appreciate county clerks and a secretary of state who want to make it safe for all voters to make their preferences known. If state law will allow it, a move to voting by mail ensures the primary can happen without worry of infection, ensuring broader participation.
The clerks, if the Supreme Court approves, would send absentee ballots to all voters, as well as postcards reminding them of the change in how the election will be conducted. A key to ensuring turnout is reminding people about the new system of voting.
One possible bright spot, according to experiences elsewhere, is that costs go down — in 2016, the Pew Charitable Trusts found that expenses decreased an average of 40 percent across 46 of Colorado’s 64 counties.
Of course, if the Supreme Court says current state law doesn’t allow a vote-by-mail election — as useful as that would be during the pandemic — the clerks and secretary of state have another card to play.
New Mexico allows any person to request an absentee ballot, which can then be returned through the mail. No one has to vote in person come June, and not even a Republican lawsuit can stop voters from choosing to mail in their ballots. So there.