A New Mexico judge has ordered two state agencies to collaborate closely and quickly to establish the voting privileges of thousands of formerly incarcerated state residents.
Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood on Tuesday spelled out a series of actions to ensure that people who have served their time for felony convictions can cast ballots by Nov. 5.
Ellenwood’s stipulated order in Santa Fe’s first judicial court was in response to a lawsuit filed on October 1 alleging that state and local officials dropped the ball on the voting re-enfranchisement process.
The suit claimed that the offices of the Department of Corrections, the Secretary of State, and the Bernalillo County Clerk were all in violation of the New Mexico Voting Rights Act (VRA), which went into effect on July 1, 2023.
As a result, the suit stated, some 11 thousand people who possess the right to vote haven’t been granted it.
The reason for the registration problems, according to the suit, is that the Corrections Department failed to “fulfill its statutory obligation,” forcing the secretary of state’s office to rely on “outdated and inaccurate information.”
Among the actions in the judge’s stipulated order from Tuesday:
- The Secretary of State’s office must update all registration forms on its website to reflect the voting rights act;
- The Department of Corrections office must prepare an electronic list at least monthly of every incarcerated person in the state and provide to the Secretary of State’s office;
- The Secretary of State must identify registrations that had been denied on the basis of outdated felony data;
- The Department of Corrections must establish a telephone hotline to be staffed every weekday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m to handle questions between the two offices.
In response to the October 1 lawsuit, the secretary of state’s office issued a statement that it had registered hundreds of former felons and that it had been taking corrective actions when the suit was filed.
Daniel Yohalem, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, told New Mexico in Depth that quote “the secretary of state ignored us until we filed the lawsuit.”
Statements from both the Secretary of State and corrections issued just after the lawsuit said that the two agencies were committed to working together to resolve the registration issues.
