[EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was drafted in early July, and should have been published then. But it is still relevant right now.]
In June, Albuquerque TV stations and the Albuquerque Journal ran stories about a "mobile voting unit" under construction by the Bernalillo County Clerk, Linda Stover.
On video and in print, Stover gave a number of reasons for wanting to have a mobile voting unit. At one point she told the county commissioners that she would "place the mobile voting unit at or near a different senior facility each day during the early voting period." (Emphasizing, however, that "all Bernalillo County voters are welcome to use the unit to cast their vote.")
To underscore her reasons for spending what must be a considerable amount of taxpayer money for this fairly elaborate van, Stover said on camera
"Seniors somehow seem to get disenfranchised through no fault of their own.”
But this is not true at all.
The truth is seniors are not "disenfranchised." They are in fact the most "enfranchised" age group there is. Seniors vote at a turnout rate of above 70%—much higher than any other age group. The youngest age group of voters (18-24) actually has a turnout rate of only 38%, and those aged 25-44, vote at a 50% rate. It's 63% for those between 45 and 64.
And for those who are in nursing homes or for young people in hospital, or anyone bedridden, absentee ballots have been around for at least 150 years in this country.
Getting Out the Vote: But is that the Job of Elected Officials?
Stover went on to say a number of other things about the unit:
“...the main mission is to help get out the vote. The mission for having a mobile voter unit is to have higher participation and higher voter turnout.”
Taking a cue from Secretary of State Maggie Oliver, Stover has also begun to push the idea that "getting out the vote" or what political activists call "GOTV," is the role of elected officials who actually administer elections. In other words, Oliver and Stover believe it is the county clerks and the Secretary of State whose job it is to try to get voters to the polls.
But that has never been the law or the tradition in this country. The phone calls, personal contacts, and canvassing that takes place have always been the responsibility of political candidates, parties, and special interest groups, using volunteers or paid workers. It's called "campaigning."
The Reason Elections Officials Should not Assume the Role of Political Parties and Candidates
Getting out the vote (GOTV) or trying to increase turnout is uniquely the job of political candidates and their allies. One of the reasons that is true is that getting out the vote is inherently a partisan activity: In this instance, where will the mobile van go? Who decides? What streets will it patrol? There is absolutely no way that it can be driven around in a neutral way—regardless of the motives or goals of those directing it.
In performing this same GOTV role, political candidates, candidates, and interest groups target their voters. They try to get their vote out. They know the neighborhoods and characteristics of their voters.
But there are a number of problems with the so-called mobile unit—problems that voters, concerned citizens, commissioners, law makers, and the media should question.
Where in the Law is the Authority to Create a Mobile Voting Unit?
“To my knowledge, this is the first mobile voting unit of this kind offered in the Southwest,” Stover said. ” I hope it grows to be offered to all throughout New Mexico after its introduction during the general election.”
In June, Stover told commissioners a schedule is yet to be determined:
"We’ll advertise it,” she said. “We’ll make it very well known that it’s available to all citizens who want to come and vote.” Funding for the unit will come out of the county clerk’s budget, Stover said.
But the determination of polling locations is finalized the November preceding an election year—not on whims of people driving around in October, a few days before an election.
New Mexico Law Provides for Alternate Voting Locations—for EARLY VOTING
We do have provisions in relatively rare cases, in a very few counties, to provide for alternate voting locations. But they are for counties that have populations or precincts that are located in remote areas—a very long way from the county seat, or locations where early voting is taking place.
The idea of a "mobile" location provided by law is a station that may be set up temporarily in specific locations—advertised 90 days in advance, with specific opening and closing times and dates. They can operate from that location for at least eight consecutive hours.
Nowhere in New Mexico law is there any authorization for a vehicle to be tooling around scarfing up random voters.
EXAMPLES of MOBILE EARLY VOTING
Rural areas that are a great distance from the county clerk's office or other early voting locations.
• Chaparral to Alamogordo 73 miles
• Datil to Reserve, 67 miles
• Pie Town to Reserve, 76 miles.
What is the maximum distance from the clerk’s office to any precinct in Bernalillo County?
Chilili, 36 miles; Sandia Park 25 miles; Tohajilee, 30 miles.
But a vote center is already used at Tohajillee, and one is used in Tijeras—9 miles from Sandia Park and 19 miles from Chilili.
So there are no actual outlying rural areas in Bernalillo County, so isolated so as to meet the criteria previously established in law and previously used by clerks with distant rural locations in their counties.
So what is the turnout among seniors compared to other age groups? It is much higher.
Where is the evidence they are disfranchised? There is none. The opposite is true.
If someone truly is bedridden or in a nursing home, it seems dubious that a mobile van will somehow be more “accessible” than the absentee ballot that will arrive right at the bed, and which has been used for many decades.
County Clerk Linda Stover
Stover adds,
“To my knowledge, this is the first mobile voting unit of this kind offered in the southwest. I hope it grows to be offered to all throughout New Mexico after its introduction during the general election.”
She also has said that this van is going to be driven around for voter registration.
But her office is charged with making voting registration simple and easy to complete. It isn't charged with driving around looking for people to register, Again, registration drives, or pushes to increase registration are the province of partisan political actors—they often even pay to get more registrants.
Where in the law is a county clerk or secretary of state authorized to conduct voter registration drives? You can't find it.
Registration drives are the job of political organizations, candidates, parties, and special interest groups.
HOW CAN ELECTIONS OFFICIALS—GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS—PERFORM PARTISAN ROLES?
Is it really is the job of a county clerk to search out people to register, or to round up people to vote?
If so, how is this done in a uniform and non-discriminatory manner so that every unregistered voter has an equal chance to register and everyone who hasn't voted has an equal chance to vote.
What parts of town will the van be in?
For all the criticism former Secretary of State Dianna Duran received for improperly using her own campaign funds (she did not take taxpayer funds) she put an end to the practice—probably since revived—of having the Secretary of State's office participate in registration drives in Santa Fe County, in Las Vegas, in Española, and in the South Valley of Albuquerque. Those drives inevitably registered Democrats at about a 4 to 1 ratio.
She asked — rhetorically, to make the point — if such drives were carried out in Hobbs, or Alamogordo, or in Reserve? Of course they were not. But the point she made immediately is that such drives can never meet the equal protection criterion of being uniform and non-discriminatory.
She had no interest in having someone who is charged with fairly administering elections, and ensuring an accurate vote count, being involved in an obviously partisan activity.
What if your goal is to increase voter turnout?
Join a political party and go to work in their GOTV programs. Candidates and volunteers spend hours manning or womanning the phones to do that. They spend hours going door-to-door to do that.
It simply is not the job of an elections official.
How does the county clerk’s office get right in the middle of that effort?
Is that what the voters of Bernalillo County elected the county clerk to do? To help special interest groups?
HERE IS THE ACTUAL ROLE of the BERNALILLO COUNTY CLERK
- Provide places for people to vote voluntarily without your rounding them up.
- Ensure the vote is secret, that there’s no electioneering.
- Have voters sign-in correctly.
- Have voters' votes recorded correctly, and tabulated correctly.
The County Clerk counts the votes. She does not try to make people vote.
PROFESSOR GABRIEL SANCHEZ
We’ve already seen on Channel 13, a smiling, very excited college professor Gabriel Sanchez, point out that the moble van is not going to benefit seniors the most.
He said:
“If any demographic group is going to benefit the most by being able to just walk outside and see the mobile unit, it will be young voters who typically do not vote at high rates.”
Sanchez added that it benefits the Democratic Party
Francesca Washington of Channel 13 said: “Sanchez also says when voting actually increases, one party benefits.”
Sanchez then went on:
“The question is always which party, if any, will this benefit more? Well, I tell you, not just in New Mexico, but nationally, anytime you see an increase in voter turnout that tends to favor Democrats.”
So is that what this is all about? The local expert says it’s not going to benefit seniors—he already knows what everyone already knows: seniors already vote at the highest turnout levels of any group.
Again, how is any of this the actual statutory role of the county clerk? Final Questions:
Did the adoption of Vote Centers in Bernalillo County eliminate on-site, community-based polling place at Chilili? Or any other places?
New Mexico statute states that you publicly “fix” the hours of “locations” 90 days before a general election.
But in Stover's words, “we’ll move it all over the county."
That being the case, how do you fix a location for a van that has been presented as driving around like an ice cream truck looking for customers?
How much did this van cost? Where was it in the budget that was submitted in late 2016?
Are other services being short-changed because of the cost of this van, which the college professor expert says will benefit one particular political party?
Email us (at nmpj@dfn.com) with your feedback, comments, questions and ideas.
Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican