HOUSE BILL 351

55th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2021

INTRODUCED BY

Randall Pettigrew

 

 

 

 

 

AN ACT

RELATING TO ELECTIONS; PROHIBITING THE SECRETARY OF STATE FROM CERTIFYING CERTAIN VOTING MACHINES.

 

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

     SECTION 1. Section 1-9-1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1969, Chapter 240, Section 184, as amended) is amended to read:

     "1-9-1. SECRETARY OF STATE--DUTIES--VOTING SYSTEM DEFINED.--

          A. The secretary of state shall study, examine and certify all voting systems used in elections for public office in New Mexico. The secretary of state shall maintain a current list of certified voting systems and copies of filed testing and evaluation reports accessible by the public on the secretary of state's [web site] website.

          B. Only voting systems certified by the secretary of state and acquired pursuant to a competitive bid process in accordance with the provisions of the Procurement Code shall be used in any election for public office in New Mexico. The secretary of state shall not certify a voting system acquired from a company that is or in the past was based outside the United States.

          [B.] C. As used in Chapter 1, Article 9 NMSA 1978, "voting system" means a combination of mechanical, electromechanical or electronic equipment, including the software and firmware required to program and control the equipment, that is used to cast and count votes, and also including any type of system that is designed to print or to mark ballots at a polling location; equipment that is not an integral part of a voting system but that can be used as an adjunct to it is considered to be a component of the system."

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