Opinion ID: 6472358
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Clarification of the Election Code is an Issue of Substantial Public Interest

Text: {24} Petitioners argue the case is of substantial public interest because it implicates the guarantee of “free and open” elections under article II, section 8 of the New Mexico Constitution (“All elections shall be free and open, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage”). Based on the statutory language of either the pre-amendment or post-amendment version of Section 1-14-15, which entitles candidates to a recount or reeheek, Petitioners argue the Legislature has given a statutory directive to ensure the transparency of election process. The State Canvassing Board generally claims that Petitioners’ case is moot because the voting machines used in the 2004 election have been cleared and a change in New Mexico’s election results cannot affect the national results in the 2004 presidential election, but the State Canvassing Board does not specifically address the issue of substantial public interest. {25} In Gunaji, an election recount case, this Court found errors on election ballots cast on a single voting machine to be of substantial public interest. 2001-NMSC-028, ¶ 10, 130 N.M. 734, 31 P.3d 1008. In that case, the election ballots for a Senate seat and a County Commissioner seat cast on the voting machine failed to contain the correct names of the candidates for those positions. Id. ¶ 2. Before the error was discovered in the voting machine, sixty-six votes were cast. Id. ¶ 3. The results of both races were close enough for the error in these sixty-six votes to change the outcome of the election. Id. The Court found Gunaji to raise issues of substantial public interest because the case required the Court to determine the appropriate means to contest an election and what remedy was available when the error could change the outcome. Id. ¶ 10. {26} Petitioners’ appeal raises similar concerns about our Election Code and potential error in the 2004 presidential election. First, Petitioners claim error in this case has the ability to change the winner of New Mexico’s presidential election from President Bush to Senator Kerry. Second, the State Canvassing Board is exercising authority to condition the issuance of summonses to precinct board members that it had not exercised previously. These issues raise concerns regarding how recounts will be handled in future elections and are of substantial public interest. The importance of recounts is clear when considered in the context of the last two presidential elections. {27} Our country experienced very close and contentious presidential elections in both 2000 and 2004. In 2000, Americans witnessed a fury of legal protests to the Florida presidential election results from the nominees of both the Democratic and Republican parties that ended up before the United States Supreme Court. See Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 121 S.Ct. 525, 148 L.Ed.2d 388 (2000). That litigation included Florida Supreme Court interpretation of Florida’s election contest and recount statutes, and interaction between state and federal law in presidential election contests. Id. at 100-03, 121 S.Ct. 525. Then, in 2004, the presidential election again turned on the results in one state, and threats of legal challenges to the vote counting again loomed. See generally Daniel P. Tokaji, Early Returns on Election Reform: Discretion, Disenfranchisement, and the Help America Vote Act, 73 Geo. Wash. L.Rev. 1206, 1206 (2005) (noting the margin of victory in Ohio was large enough to “overcome any legal challenges that might have arisen from uncounted provisional votes, ambiguously marked ‘hanging chad’ punch card ballots, and lengthy lines that may have discouraged many citizens from voting”). {28} With this background of close and contentious elections, it is undeniable that clarification of the recount and recheck provisions of the Election Code is a matter of substantial public interest. As a result, we reach the merits of Petitioners’ appeal.