New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 1 - GENERAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION › Chapter 10 - ELECTIONS AND ELECTED OFFICIALS › Part 22 - PROVISIONAL VOTING › Section 1.10.22.10 - TABULATION AND CANVASSING OF QUALIFIED PROVISIONAL BALLOT PROCEDURES

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
A. Qualified
				provisional ballots shall be counted for the reporting of votes by precinct and
				voting method for each candidate contest or ballot question, as specified in
				the Election Code, Section
				1-12-70 NMSA 1978. Only the votes
				for those candidate contests or ballot questions for which the voter is
				eligible to vote shall be counted, as follows:
(1) A qualified mailed ballot, processed as a
				provisional ballot, in a provisional ballot envelope prescribed by the
				secretary of state because the first time voter did not provide the required
				form of physical identification prior to the ballot issuance, shall be hand
				tallied and recorded in the absentee provisional by hand tally counting group,
				or tabulated by a voting tabulator designated, programmed and certified for
				such specific use, and recorded in the absentee provisional by machine counting
				group.
(2) A qualified absentee
				replacement ballot, processed as a provisional ballot, in a provisional ballot
				envelope prescribed by the secretary of state because the absentee voter did
				not receive, or if received, did not vote the mailed ballot, shall be hand
				tallied and recorded in the absentee provisional by hand tally counting group,
				or tabulated by a voting tabulator designated, programmed and certified for
				such specific use, and recorded in the absentee provisional by machine counting
				group.
(3) A qualified provisional
				ballot issued during early voting in the office of the county clerk, alternate
				voting location or mobile alternate voting location shall be hand tallied and
				recorded in the early voting provisional by hand tally counting group, or
				tabulated by a voting tabulator designated, programmed and certified for such
				specific use, and recorded in the early voting provisional by machine counting
				group.
(4) A qualified provisional
				ballot issued on election day shall be hand tallied and recorded in the
				election day provisional by hand tally counting group, or tabulated by a voting
				tabulator designated, programmed and certified for such use, and recorded in
				the election day provisional by machine counting group.
(5) A qualified federal write-in absentee
				ballot shall be hand tallied and shall be counted and recorded in the federal
				overseas hand tally counting group.
(6) The hand tally of votes from qualified
				provisional ballots shall be conducted in accordance with 1.10.23 NMAC by a
				team of at least two persons. The team shall consist of one reader and one
				marker, not of the same political party, if possible. The reader shall read the
				ballot to the marker and the marker shall observe whether the reader has
				correctly read each vote from the ballot; the marker shall then mark the tally
				sheet of the precinct, voting method and voting location where the ballot was
				cast, and the reader shall observe whether the marker correctly marked the
				tally sheet. The hand tally team shall observe the following:
(a) Only the votes for the candidates or
				ballot questions from the precinct the voter is eligible to vote for shall be
				counted;
(b) Each ballot shall
				increase the ballots cast count by one;
(c) Only those contests receiving no more
				than the allotted selections for the number of candidates to be elected or
				ballot questions where there is one selection for either the affirmative or
				negative will be hand tallied on overvoted ballots;
(d) No votes for either candidate contests or
				ballot questions will be hand tallied for blank ballots;
(e) Only those candidate contests or ballot
				questions receiving a selection by the voter will be hand tallied on an
				undervoted ballot; and,
(f)
				Overvoted, blank or undervoted ballots cast by voters, after going through the
				above process shall be recorded as a "ballot cast" and proper voting credit
				shall be given on the respective voter registration record on file with the
				county clerk.
(7) When a
				voting tabulator is used for the counting and recording of qualified
				provisional ballots of voters who were issued a ballot for their correct voting
				precinct, a member of the county canvassing board shall feed the ballots into
				the voting tabulator.
(a) An overvoted or
				blank provisional ballot shall be accepted by the voting tabulator after it has
				been adjudicated by the county canvassing board. The ballot will be counted and
				recorded in the appropriate machine counting group, as detailed
				above.
(b) If a provisional ballot
				is misread after being fed into a voting tabulator, a county canvass board
				member shall feed it into the voting tabulator a second time. A provisional
				ballot that is rejected after two attempts shall be adjudicated by the county
				canvass board, hand tallied, counted and recorded in the appropriate hand tally
				counting group, as detailed above.