Articles Tagged ‘Voters’ Rights’

By Peter Simonson, ACLU-NM Executive Director

The GOP’s efforts to convince voters that the election system is wracked by fraud took another hit last week when the NM Court of Appeals rejected the Party’s effort to get a hold of the names and addresses of undocumented immigrants who have received state driver’s licenses.  The GOP had hoped to use the information to check whether non-citizen immigrants were registered to vote in New Mexico.

Talk about a wild goose chase.  What immigrant is going to risk felony charges, permanent deportation, and the total upheaval of his or her family just to cast a ballot in a US election?  Barely fifty percent of American citizens exercise that right even in the best of years!

What’s really concerning is how readily local GOP leaders will sacrifice individuals’ right to privacy in the zeal to find evidence of voter fraud.  Two years ago the ACLU sued members of the Republican Party for violating state privacy laws after the Party obtained copies of individual voter registration forms and released the information to the press.  GOP members also used the information to track down lawful voters and challenge their right to vote in their homes.

Americans don’t need another disincentive to vote, like the belief that fraud so compromises the election system that voting is fruitless.  If the GOP truly has the best interests of our electoral democracy in mind, it should devote its effort to encouraging New Mexicans to take part in elections.  It could start by promoting mobile vote registration campaigns and removing ID requirements for voting in Albuquerque elections.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 27, 2008

CONTACT: Whitney Potter (505) 507-9898; wpotter@aclu-nm.org

ALBUQUERQUE—The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico today sued key members of the Republican Party for violating the privacy rights of New Mexico voters and illegally interfering with their right to vote.  Filed in state district court, the class action suit alleges that NM Representative Justine Fox-Young and as yet unnamed members of the GOP illegally used private social security numbers to do background checks of legal voters and illegally disseminated confidential voter information to the press.  The lawsuit also names private investigator Al Romero, hired by the GOP, for using voter registration information locate voters and question them about the legitimacy of their registrations.

“Today we are declaring ‘enough is enough,’” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson.  “We are not going to stand by and watch the Republican Party break laws to interfere with New Mexicans’ private and constitutional right to participate in the upcoming election.  Something had to be done immediately to confront these abuses, so we have taken action.”

In an October 16 press conference, Representative Fox-Young announced that members of the Republican Party used social security numbers from 92 voter registration forms, which they obtained from an as yet undetermined source, to run credit checks and driver’s license checks.  They sent copies of the forms to the press, including 7 unredacted dates of birth.

According to New Mexico state law, “It is unlawful for the qualified elector’s date of birth or any portion of the qualified elector’s social security number required on the certificate of registration to be copied, conveyed, or used by anyone other than the person registering to vote, either before or after it is filed with the county clerk.”  A person who violates this law is guilty of a fourth degree felony.

On October 22, the ACLU sent a letter to the NM Attorney General’s office calling for a criminal investigation into the matter.  The office has assigned an investigator but no further information is available.

###

The mission of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is to maintain and advance the cause of civil liberties within the state of New Mexico, with particular emphasis on the freedom of religion, speech, press, association, and assemblage, and the right to vote, due process of law and equal protection of law, and to take any legitimate action in the furtherance and defense of such purposes. These objectives shall be sought wholly without political partisanship.

Related Documents:

GOP Complaint

FOR IMMIDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2008

CONTACT:  Whitney Potter, Communications Director (505) 266-5915 ext. 1003;wpotter@aclu-nm.org or James Flores, Spokesperson for Secretary of State Mary Herrera (505) 476-0352; james.flores@state.nm.us

The New Mexico Women’s Justice Project, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, and Secretary of State Mary Herrera announced an agreement to ensure convicted felons who have completed all probation or parole are able to vote in the upcoming election.

Under a 2001 state law, individuals who have completed their sentence are to be reinstated into the voter rolls by the State. This year, the State had a backlog of reinstatements for individuals whose voter rights had been restored. To remedy the problem of the backlog and make sure that people formerly convicted are given every opportunity to vote, the civil rights groups and Secretary Herrera agreed that the Secretary of State will:

• Issue a directive permitting anyone to vote on a provisional ballot who states that they should be permitted to vote because they completed the terms of their sentence under N.M. Stat. Ann. § 31-13-1 (2008), but who appears as an ineligible voter because of a felony conviction on the rolls.

• Waive any time constraints for qualifying the provisional ballot of these individuals, until such times as the Secretary of State can review them and cross-reference them with the information from the New Mexico Department of Corrections, New Mexico Administration of Courts, and the Federal Department of Corrections.

• Direct all County Clerks to issue a letter to anyone who has received a letter of rejection, clarifying that the individual may be permitted to vote on a provisional ballot.

• Enter all data of information for all persons with a prior felony conviction, now eligible to vote, into the computer system prior to this year’s election.

• Provide record of information of all individuals who have been sent a rejection letter or who have not been able to vote based upon a prior felony conviction.

Christina Vigil, Executive Director of the New Mexico Women’s Justice Project, said, “We were very concerned about the disenfranchisement of individuals with felony convictions who completed their sentence and were eligible to vote.  We are relieved that the Secretary of State’s Office has agreed to solutions, which ensure that individuals with past felony convictions will now be allowed to exercise their fundamental right to vote on Election Day and participate in the political process.”

“This is an important accomplishment that clears the way for thousands of restored voters to participate in one of the most momentous elections in recent history,” said ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter Simonson.  “We are thrilled that the Secretary of State’s Office shares our commitment to voters’ rights and is willing to implement these critical changes, even so close to the time of the election.”

###

The New Mexico Women’s Justice Project, Inc. (NMWJP), located in Albuquerque, is a non-profit organization that seeks to eliminate a broad range of systemic barriers to social, economic and political justice faced by women, girls and their families in NM. The NMWJP focuses on women and girls whose lives are affected by the criminal justice, delinquency and child welfare systems. The Project is dedicated to improving the lives of women and children who have been affected by poverty, addiction, mental illness, and the trauma of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by providing research, policy development, education, and direct action for change that enhances lives while maintaining families and protecting our communities.

The mission of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is to maintain and advance the cause of civil liberties within the state of New Mexico, with particular emphasis on the freedom of religion, speech, press, association, and assemblage, and the right to vote, due process of law and equal protection of law, and to take any legitimate action in the furtherance and defense of such purposes. These objectives shall be sought wholly without political partisanship.

FOR IMMIDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2008

CONTACT: (505) 266-5915 ext. 1003; wpotter@aclu-nm.org

ALBUQUERQUE—In a letter to the New Mexico Attorney General today, the ACLU called for a criminal investigation into concerns that the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office may have released confidential voter registration information to the Republican Party, and that the Party may have publicly distributed that information in violation of state laws protecting voter privacy.  A press packet distributed by the GOP last week contained photocopies of 19 voter registration forms, and acknowledged that the Party obtained 92 voter registration forms in all.  Several of the forms displayed written notes in a space reserved for “office use only,” suggesting that they had been reviewed by County officials before arriving in the Party’s hands.

New Mexico state law prohibits the County Clerk from releasing voter registration to anyone except registrants and it assesses a fourth degree felony upon any, “person who unlawfully copies, conveys, or uses information from a certificate of registration.”

“The evidence suggests to us a stunning disregard for the privacy of New Mexico voters and the laws of our state that ensure orderly elections,” ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson said.  “Voters should not have to fear that their identifying information is going to make its way into the hands of people who want to influence their vote or intimidate them into not voting at all.”

Although the GOP blacked out social security numbers on the registration forms released to the press, they left names, addresses, phone numbers, and, in some instances, dates of birth unredacted.  Simonson urged immediate intervention by state authorities.

“We still do not know how the GOP obtained these registration forms, whether they might obtain more, and if someone in the County Clerk’s office is sharing the information with other parties,” Simonson said.  “The threat to voters’ privacy is imminent.”

# # #

The mission of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is to maintain and advance the cause of civil liberties within the state of New Mexico, with particular emphasis on the freedom of religion, speech, press, association, and assemblage, and the right to vote, due process of law and equal protection of law, and to take any legitimate action in the furtherance and defense of such purposes. These objectives shall be sought wholly without political partisanship.

Related Documents:

ACLU’s Letter to the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office (10-21-08)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 13, 2007

CONTACT: Whitney Potter (505) 266 5915 ext. 1003 Cell (505) 507 9898; or James Scarantino (505) 366-7873

Albuquerque—A federal judge struck down Albuquerque’s Voter ID law yesterday “because it imposes a significant burden on the fundamental right to vote, and because that burden is not narrowly tailored to meet the City’s interest in preventing voter impersonation at the polls.”  The ruling results from a lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed in October, 2005 on behalf of the League of Woman Voters and Bernalillo County, Inc., among other plaintiffs.

“The law created an unfair, unequal system of voting,” said ACLU Executive Director, Peter Simonson.  “It treated people who voted in person as suspicious, but exempted people who voted absentee from any ID requirements at all.  Ironically, it gave a pass to the very type of vote that is most susceptible to fraud.”

In her ruling, Judge Christina Armijo noted that the City of Albuquerque failed to present “evidence of voter fraud or voting irregularities among Albuquerque voters who vote in person at their precinct polling place on election day.”  Indeed, the most convincing evidence of voter fraud lay with absentee voting.  Testimony by former NM State Election Director Denise Lamb “cite[d] several examples of schemes or ploys that reportedly were used to defraud or disenfranchise voters using absentee voting procedures.”

ACLU attorney James Scarantino said, “The judge underscored the truly cynical nature of this law.  The people of Albuquerque were sold voter ID as a preventive measure for voter impersonation, when in fact the law fixed what didn’t need fixing.  And it left the only real source of fraud—absentee voting–unchecked.”

Scarantino noted that the Albuquerque City Council was warned in June 2005 by City Councilor Michael Cadigan that the disparate treatment of in-person and absentee voters would prove to be unconstitutional.

“They should not have blocked Cadigan’s efforts to plug the loop-hole for absentee voters,” Scarantino said.

ACLU Director Simonson said, “With this decision I think we’ve started a trend in which the courts are looking with much greater skepticism on laws that impose burdensome ID requirements on voters.  Hopefully our state legislators will take this into account in the next several weeks as they consider bills proposing new voter ID requirements.”

The ACLU recognized Scarantino in 2006 as its “Cooperating Attorney of the Year” for his outstanding work on the voter ID lawsuit.

###