The New Mexico Voting Rights Act will stay in the Senate Rules Committee until at least Friday.
A vote on the bill was delayed after a substitute motionwas introduced to the committee Wednesday.
Senate Bill 8 would expand voting rights in the state through changes including automatic voter registration, allowing 16-year olds to vote in local and municipal elections, and allowing designating a tribal government building as a voting address.
Prior to the committee meeting, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver participated in the press conference organized by New Mexico voting rights organizations. She says she’s very optimistic the bill will pass.
“This legislation really represents a tremendous step forward for New Mexico and especially in this time in our nation when voting rights are under attack around the country really in response to a very cynical, politically motivated narrative that in some way there was something wrong with the 2020 election,” she said.
Moulouse Oliver addressed the Committee on Wednesday.
She listed the changes to the original bill, most of which were technical and cleaning up language.
The committee agreed to wait two more days until its Friday meeting to have the chance to look over the substitute motion.