Opinion ID: 2614688
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Presence In the County on Election Day.

Text: The trial court found and concluded that twenty-one voters of absentee ballots knew at the time of making their application that they would be present in Catron County on the day of the election, and were in fact present in Catron County on that date. This finding and conclusion has two pertinent parts: (1) the trial court implicitly found that none of these persons intended to be or thought they would be out of Catron County on election day on business or on vacation; and (2) significance was given to the fact that they were actually in the county when the election was held. Section 1-6-3 of the New Mexico Absent Voter Act, §§ 1-6-1 et seq., N.M.S.A. 1978, provides that any qualified elector who cannot be present at his precinct poll on election day, because of illness, injury or disability, or who will be absent from his county of residence because his duties, occupation, business or vacation requires him to be elsewhere,    may vote by absentee ballot. Myriad reasons, which drastically differ from those stated in their applications, were given at trial by the voters for voting absentee. Two voters testified that they knew they would be present in Catron County on election day and obtained absentee ballots for the reason that they did not like voting on the voting machines. Six testified that they were working in the mountains on election day and that they knew, when applying for the absentee ballots, that they would be present in Catron County on election day. One voter voted absentee because she did not know if her husband would take her to the polls and she did not want to go alone. Two voters testified that they planned to be present in Catron County on election day, but deliberately stated in their applications for absentee ballots that they would be away from the county on that day. As to nine other votes that were voided by the trial court, the evidence is plain that the persons making their applications for absentee ballots did not have the intention to be absent from the county on election day. However, five of the voters whose votes were invalidated by the trial court testified, without contradiction, that they had thought they would probably be either out of state or out of the county on election day. One of these voters testified that his business often demanded that he be in Arizona. He stated that he could not predict or control when he would have to go to Arizona on business and therefore applied for an absentee ballot. Two of these voters testified that they applied to vote absentee because they had medical problems and could not predict whether they could make it to the polls. One of them stated that she had a doctor's appointment in Albuquerque scheduled for the day of the election when she applied to vote absentee, although it so happened that she did not keep her appointment. The first question is whether a person who has no reason to think or believe that he or she will be out of the county for business or vacation on election day is qualified to vote absentee for either of those reasons. The answer is quite obvious from the statute. It permits absentee voting when a person cannot make it to the polls for those specific reasons. This clearly contemplates that the person must have some statutory reason. If he has none, he is not a qualified absentee voter. The votes of those who testified that they had no known statutory reason for applying for or voting by an absentee ballot are void. Under Section 1-6-4, the Secretary of State prescribes the form for the application for an absent voter ballot. The form used here has a box to be checked to indicate the reason a person is applying for an absentee ballot. The printed reasons from which a person chooses are identical with the statutory provisions. All voters involved here made check marks to indicate their reasons. There are elaborate procedures in the same section for insuring that the voter does not vote at the polls after having cast an absentee ballot. Section 1-6-6 requires the Clerk to keep an absentee ballot register and deliver to each precinct board a list of all absentee ballot applicants or deliver a signature roster containing the same information to those precincts using voting machines. Section 1-6-8, among other things, provides that the outer envelope of the absentee ballot shall contain a form to be executed under oath by the absentee voter which specifies that he will not vote in this election other than by the enclosed ballot. The finding that the voters knew that they would be present, and actually were present in the county on election day raises two issues: (1) whether it is necessary that an applicant actually know that he or she will be out of the county on election day before being eligible to vote by absentee ballot (the answer is obvious: there is no way that future absence from the county can be positively known in advance); and (2) whether the absentee vote is void if the voter is actually in the county on election day after having voted by absentee ballot. There is little uniformity in the case law on these issues. Many of the differences are due both to the varied expressions in the statutes regarding absentee voter qualifications and to the degree of strictness with which the courts have construed the statutory language. There are few general rules of statutory construction in this area. One of these is that absentee voting is considered a privilege granted the electors and is not an absolute right. Sommerfeld v. Board of Canvassers, 269 Wis. 299, 69 N.W.2d 235 (1955); Annot., 97 A.L.R.2d 257 (1964). Another question of importance is whether to apply a strict or liberal construction to our laws. On this issue there is a split of authority, with a preponderance of the cases taking a liberal approach in favor of the voter. 97 A.L.R.2d at 266, supra. This Court in Bryan v. Barnett, 35 N.M. 207, 292 P. 611 (1930) placed New Mexico on the liberal side by deciding that absentee voters, although required by the statute then in effect to sign their applications for ballots, did not lose their votes, in the absence of fraud, because the applications were signed by a person other than the voter. This Court reasoned that the law favors the right to vote and seeks to give effect to the express will of the electorate. This Court there quoted State ex rel. Read v. Crist, 25 N.M. 1975, 179 P. 629 (1919), to the effect that only when the Legislature expressly provides that deviation from the prescribed procedure prevents the counting of the vote will the ballot be declared void. This Court held that the Legislature must make the procedures mandatory and stated: [t]hus it seems that this court has made it extremely plain that such regulations of electors and of voting are directory unless expressly made mandatory. Bryan at 212, 292 P. at 613. There is no provision in the present law which expressly voids an absentee ballot if the voter, after casting his absentee ballot, finds himself in the county on election day. In Bryan, this Court equated absentee voting with regular attendance at the polls. It stated that the principle of absentee voting was adopted by our Legislature as our public policy and thus the right became as sacred, as much to be protected and favored by the courts, as the right of voting by personal presence. Id. at 212, 292 P. at 613. It is settled law in New Mexico that statutes should be construed to carry out the legislative intent. Burroughs v. Board of Cty. Com'rs, Cty. of Bernalillo, 88 N.M. 303, 540 P.2d 233 (1975). The obvious intent of the absentee voting statutes, considering them in their entirety in conjunction with applicable related statutes in the election code, is to enlarge the right of franchise to people who fall into the categories specifically set forth in the law, provided they have good reason to believe that they cannot be available at the polls on election day. A person who expects to be gone from the county on business or vacation can never know with certainty that he will follow his plans, however well settled they may be. To hold that the application must be made with certain knowledge that the voter cannot be present would place unreasonable constraints upon the right to vote. This would be in contravention of the Legislature's manifest intent to enlarge the voter franchise. We first take note that neither the statutes nor the application for an absentee ballot requires the voter to state details about his belief that he cannot get to the polls on election day. The application form only calls for a checking of a box indicating the appropriate statutory reason. We determine the intent of the Legislature to be that a qualified absentee voter must in good faith have a reasonable belief that he may be unable to vote in person on election day for one or more of the specific statutory reasons and must sign the proper affidavits under oath to prove his status. After he has done this, it is the burden of the one challenging his right to vote to come forward and prove that the ballot is illegal, either when the votes are counted or by election contest. Thus, the persons here who alleged statutory reasons for applying and voting, such as health and business, and whose testimony showed reasonable grounds to sustain their good faith in applying for and voting by absentee ballot, should have their votes counted. The trial court erred in voiding these votes. The cases are in conflict on the other question that is raised as to whether an absentee ballot is void if the voter is not actually absent from the county on election day. Our statutes do not specifically void such a ballot. Furthermore, such a construction contradicts the Absent Voter Act as a whole. Wood v. State, 133 Tex. 110, 126 S.W.2d 4 (1939); Longoria v. Lozano, 485 S.W.2d 308 (Tex. Ct. App. 1972). At one time, the Texas law permitted absentee balloting in cases where the voter expects to be absent. This law was amended to read: who through the nature of his business is absent.  (Emphasis added.) In Wood v. State, supra , the lower court ruled that under the later statute the absentee ballot would be illegal if the voter was not actually absent on election day. The Texas Supreme Court overruled that decision and held that it was a construction that contradicted the entire absentee voter law. This decision called attention to all of the various duties imposed upon the voter, the County Clerk and the election officials, by the Texas law. These duties began with the application and continued through the counting of the votes. The Texas Court stated that nowhere in the law was it ever hinted that actual presence in the county on election day would justify a refusal to count the vote. That Court found that election officers had an affirmative duty to count the ballot if it appeared from the papers before them that the voter had complied with the absentee voting statute. Our statutes should be construed in the same manner. If his vote by absentee is void because of his inadvertent presence in the county on election day, how is the person going to exercise his right to vote? He could not vote in person at the polls. His precinct records would reflect that he had already voted. §§ 1-6-5 and 1-6-6. Furthermore, under the construction adopted by the trial court, he would be in the ludicrous position of having to needlessly absent himself from the county during the election to validate his absentee vote and to avoid the possibility of criminal prosecution for voting illegally. Unquestionably, the Legislature had no intentions of creating such an impasse. We hold that presence in the county on election day by an otherwise qualified absentee voter does not invalidate his vote.