HOUSE BILL 317

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2015

INTRODUCED BY

W. Ken Martinez

AN ACT

RELATING TO ELECTIONS; REQUIRING AN ALTERNATE VOTING LOCATION IN A POPULATION CENTER THAT IS MORE THAN FIFTY MILES FROM THE NEAREST ALTERNATE VOTING LOCATION IF MORE THAN ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED VOTERS RESIDE IN THE PRECINCTS OF THE POPULATION CENTER.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 1-6-5.6 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2003, Chapter 357, Section 6, as amended) is amended to read:

     "1-6-5.6. EARLY VOTING--ALTERNATE VOTING LOCATIONS--PROCEDURES.--The county clerk shall:

          A. ensure that voters have adequate access to alternate voting locations for early voting in the county, taking into consideration population density and travel time to the location of voting;

          B. ensure that early voters are not allowed to vote in person on election day;

          C. ensure that adequate interpreters are available at alternate voting locations in those precincts having a majority of qualified electors who are part of a recognized language minority; [and]

          D. establish an alternate voting location for a minimum of five days, including at least one Saturday, in any population center:

                (1) where more than one thousand five hundred voters reside within a ten-mile radius in one or more adjoining precincts;

                (2) that is more than fifty road miles from the nearest alternate voting location in the county, including the office of the county clerk; and

                (3) that is not served by a mobile alternate voting location authorized pursuant to Section 1-6-5.8 NMSA 1978; and

          [D.] E. based on rules adopted by the secretary of state, allow for mobile alternate voting locations in rural areas of the state that may be set up temporarily in specified precincts of the county during the period when early voting is allowed at alternate voting locations."

- 2 -