New Mexico Democrats Still Promote Vote Fraud

The New Mexico state legislature is in its 30 day session. (Legislative sessions in even-numbered years are only 30 days long here, and can only consider topics included in the "governor's call".) And the legislature is continuing its actions against New Mexico's voters.

As previously noted, the legislature last year killed a Republican-sponsored voter ID bill on a straight party-line vote. That left New Mexico law in the state described by the Albuquerque Journal last year (registration/subscription required):

Current New Mexico law, approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature, allows voters to identify themselves in one of several ways that don't involve a photo ID, including a “verbal or written statement” by the voter giving their name, registration address and year of birth.

In other words, current state law says you can just walk in and claim to be someone, and you can vote in their place.

This year's legislative Democrats want to expand this open invitation to fraud. At the request of Governor Bill Richardson (and presumably included in his "call"), Representative Jim Trujillo (D-Santa Fe) has introduced House Bill 123 which, if passed, will allow same day registration and voting at early voting sites without the need for a photo ID. (Same day registration would apparently be available only during early voting, and not on election day. Presumably, this is because the election day voting sites do not have real-time update access to the state's voter rolls, thus limiting the fraudulent updates to the early voting sites.)

In other words, you would be able to walk in and give a fictitious name, fictitious birth year, and fictitious address — with no documentation whatever — and be immediately placed on the voter rolls and immediately allowed to vote. This wouldn't be just an open invitation to vote fraud. It would be an absolute iron-clad guarantee of it.

HB 123 is being referred to two House committees, the Voters and Elections Committee and the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee.

Oh, yes. Need I mention that Speaker Ben Lujan and Representative W. Ken Martinez (presumably still the majority leader) — who led the effort to kill voter ID last year — are members of the Voters and Elections Committee? Something tells me they will follow the wishes of the governor, and to hell with the wishes of New Mexico's citizens and voters.

As I have said before, anyone who opposes a serious voter identification requirement is objectively promoting vote fraud. That's why a large majority of New Mexico voters (apparently 80%) favor a voter ID law, but that doesn't matter since that 80% obviously doesn't include the Democrats in the legislature. I wonder why the Democrats are insisting on this. (Maybe I shouldn't wonder.)

Things like this tell me the Democrats have had control of the state legislature FAR too long.