2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 1 - Elections › Article 6C - Intimate Partner Violence Survivor Suffrage › Section 1-6C-6 - Transmission of ballots to voter-participants.

A. On the thirty-fifth day before an election, on behalf of each voter-participant eligible to vote in that election, the administrator shall request from each appropriate county clerk the ballot to be used by each voter-participant registered to vote in that county.
B. The request shall not reveal the name or address of the voter-participant. In place of a voter-participant's name and address, the administrator shall provide the appropriate county clerk the random identifier and verification code associated with the voter-participant for that election. The request made pursuant to this section is a record related to voting subject to the disclosure and retention procedures of Section 1-12-69 NMSA 1978.
C. No later than thirty-two days before the election, the appropriate county clerk shall transmit to the administrator the ballot for each voter-participant registered to vote in that county.
D. Twenty-eight days before the election, the administrator shall mail a ballot and balloting materials to a voter-participant's delivery address, along with a return envelope necessary to return the voted ballot to the appropriate county clerk. The return envelope shall be the same as for all other voters, except that in place of the required voter identification to be written under the privacy flap, the administrator shall provide the random identifier assigned to that voter-participant for that election. The return envelope for the voted ballot shall be postage-paid and the return address shall be the address for the appropriate county clerk.
E. When a participant registers to vote or updates a voter registration after the thirty-fifth day before an election but before the deadline to register to vote or to update an existing registration pursuant to Section 1-4-8 NMSA 1978, the administrator shall:
(1) request from the appropriate county clerk, and the appropriate county clerk shall transmit to the administrator as soon as practicable, a ballot and balloting materials; and
(2) send a voter-participant the ballot and balloting materials within twenty-four hours of receipt from the appropriate county clerk.
F. When an unvoted ballot is transmitted to the administrator on behalf of a voter-participant, the appropriate county clerk shall note in the ballot register the random identifier in place of the voter-participant's name and the address of the confidential substitute address program in place of the voter-participant's address and shall not note the voter-participant's gender or year of birth.
G. A voter-participant needing a replacement ballot may appear in person only at the office of the county clerk and execute an affidavit stating that the voter participant wishes to void any previous mailed ballot that was mailed in that election. When completing the affidavit, the voter-participant shall use the random identifier in place of the voter-participant's name and the verification code in place of the voter-participant's signature. Upon receipt of the sworn affidavit, if the ballot register does not show that a ballot from the voter-participant has been received in that election, the county clerk shall void the ballot that was previously issued and issue to the voter-participant a replacement ballot and ballot materials, which shall include the voter-participant's random identifier, but the county clerk shall not provide to the voter-participant the verification code when issuing a replacement ballot pursuant to this subsection.
History:
Laws 2019, ch. 226, § 6; 2023, ch. 39, § 40.
ANNOTATIONS
The 2023 amendment,
effective June 16, 2023, provided a process for voter-participants to obtain a replacement ballot; and added Subsection G.