All voters will need ID to cast ballot next year

By Barry Massey / Associated Press
April 7, 2005

SANTA FE - Voters in next year's general and primary elections must provide some identification before they cast their ballots at a polling place under legislation signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Bill Richardson.

An ID requirement that applies to more voters is one provision of a package of election law changes that take effect in July.

Richardson said at a news conference the legislation should help speed up vote counting on election day, ensure accurate tallies and make voting "more user friendly to restore the public's confidence in the results."

"This legislation will ensure the integrity of our elections," Richardson said.

The governor was joined at the bill signing ceremony by Democratic legislators - but no Republican lawmakers - as well as Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Attorney General Patricia Madrid, both Democrats.

After the event, Richardson traveled to Raton to sign a bill to lower the age from 25 to 21 to carry a concealed handgun in New Mexico. The signing ceremony was at a National Rifle Association center.

Under the elections legislation, identification will be required for all voters - on election day at a polling place, for early in-person voting before election day, using an absentee ballot or a provisional ballot.

Acceptable voter identification under the new law includes a photo ID, a utility bill, bank statement, government check or paycheck, or student or tribal ID. The address on the ID isn't required to match the voter's registration.

However, voters also can meet the ID requirement by providing - either verbally or in writing - their name, year of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security number. People applying for an absentee ballot must provide that information to comply with the ID requirement.

Voters who can't provide required ID at a polling place can still vote by provisional ballot. The ballot will be counted if the individual returns with an ID before the polls close or provides the county clerk's office with the ID before the county's election canvass starts.

Under current law, only first-time voters who registered by mail had to show ID.

In last year's presidential election season, voter ID became the focus of a legal dispute between Republicans and Democrats. Eventually, the state Supreme Court issued a ruling that determined which new voters had to provide an ID when they cast their ballots.

In the Legislature, Republicans contended the expanded voter ID provisions were inadequate. When the bill passed the House, Rep. Justine Fox-Young, an Albuquerque Republican, called it "voter ID with a wink and a nod."

Other provisions of the election measure:

Allow county clerks to start processing and tallying absentee ballots five days before the election. Ballots will be fed into machines that count the votes, but the results won't be available until after polls close on election day.

Require voting machines to provide paper records showing the ions by voters. Voters could view those before casting their ballots, but would not take paper receipts away from the polls. Machines providing a "voter verifiable and auditable paper trail" will be required starting in 2007 or sooner if acceptable machines are manufactured and money is available. Vigil-Giron said it's uncertain how much it will cost to buy new machines.

Require county clerks starting in 2007 to conduct a random audit of some voting machines and compare the results to hand tallies from the "paper trail" from those machines. A recount will be required in affected precincts if the audit finds that vote totals differ by a certain percentage.

Madrid, whose office handled a number of election challenges last year, said, "I hope the focus is now on the voting booth and not in the courtroom."