Ramona Goolsby

Election security and access: What changes, if any, would you make to New Mexico’s election system to ensure both that every eligible voter can readily cast a ballot and that voters can have confidence that only eligible votes are counted?

I’ve checked voters in as an election clerk, done voter registration, gone through campaign-finance filings, and filed ethics complaints when the paperwork didn’t match the statute. A lot of this job is records. If the list is wrong, everything built on it is harder to trust.

New Mexico already does some things right. We use paper ballots. The county clerks I talk with take their work seriously, and we audit. I would keep the parts that work and tighten up the parts that need attention, such as standardized mail-ballot check, increased use of Boards of Registration for voter roll maintenance efforts, set up a tip line during elections for people to report anomalies, two factor authentication for voters when they change their information online, and update campaign and lobbyist filing platform. I would follow statute equally and fairly when it comes to campaign and lobbying filings.

On access and security, list maintenance must be routine, not something we scramble to do. Clerks want to maintain accurate voter rolls. They don’t always have the tools. A voter who has died or moved for good should be flagged, notified, and removed only after the process the law already requires. We should not be mailing a ballot to an address the voter left years ago.

Voter rolls and voter identification: What changes, if any, should New Mexico make to the way it maintains its voter rolls and verifies the identity and eligibility of voters, including whether the state should require photo identification to vote?

Address changes, property records, and obituaries are flags for a clerk to review. I would make sure all tools are available for county clerks. They are not a purge list. The voter gets notice. Removal happens by statute, after the response window closes, or if the voter confirms they’ve moved. The office should publish the counts: flagged, notified, corrected, removed. Lawful voters are protected by that notice. Bad records shouldn’t just sit there until the next mail ballot. That is transparency.

On identification, the Secretary of State cannot impose photo ID. That takes legislation, and I would support common sense voter ID. A valid ID is already how people must function. You can’t do financial transactions without one. You can’t see a provider or pick up a prescription without one.

Voting should not be the one place we pretend identity doesn’t matter. Tribal government IDs should count, along with ordinary state and federal photo IDs. For the person who doesn’t have one, including a senior whose license has lapsed, the state should help them get one at no cost, and an affidavit option should remain so they can still vote while that’s sorted out. Getting someone an ID is access. It isn’t just a voting issue.

Federal versus state authority: The federal government and states have recently disagreed over access to voter information and authority over election administration. Under what circumstances should New Mexico provide voter

information to the federal government, and where should the secretary of state draw the line in resisting federal directives?

Elections are a state responsibility. If we keep well maintained rolls, the federal government doesn’t need a copy of the voter file. I’ll turn over voter information when a statute, a court order, or a real criminal investigation requires it, and only in the form the law allows. That covers the usual list maintenance coordination and a referral for suspected double voting or non-citizen registration. It does not cover handing over dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers for a general look-through.

Washington doesn’t run our polling places, and it doesn’t get to rewrite our procedures. Observers are normal. Intimidation isn’t. Immigration enforcement doesn’t belong at a polling place because non-citizens aren’t eligible to vote. The way to deal with that is registration screening and list maintenance, not officers standing at the door.

Transparency and campaign finance: The secretary of state is responsible for campaign-finance reporting and other government transparency requirements in addition to administering elections. What changes would you make to improve disclosure, enforcement and public access to information about who is financing candidates and political campaigns in New Mexico?

People trust the process when they can see the records. Right now, they often can’t. Election information is tied up in IPRA exceptions, and the office doesn’t have the staff to answer the requests that do come in. Journalists already know how hard this is. We shouldn’t make it harder.

I would put up a transparency portal on the model of the New Mexico Sunshine Portal. Contracts, oaths of office, election data, and the other records people ask for repeatedly would sit there in a searchable form. If it is requested often, it should already be posted.

The same standard applies to campaign finance. The filing software glitches, reports come in late, and a lot of violations end with a notice instead of anything that changes behavior. I’ve spent enough time in those filings to see the gaps. A voter should be able to search a candidate, a donor, or a lobbyist without hiring somebody. A lobbyist report ought to show the client, the bill, and the money in one place. Deadlines need a predictable penalty, applied the same way no matter who the filer is. Help the first-time candidate who can’t get the software to accept a report. Then enforce the rule on the people who simply don’t file.

The Bulletin asked each Dona Ana County candidate four questions to allow voters to assess where the candidates stands on important issues heading into the election. The questions vary for each office, but are the same for every candidate running for the same office.