Secretary Of State Confident On Ballots

LEGAL BATTLE
Duran: Straight Party Voting Not AllowedBy Deborah BakerJournal Capitol Bureau

SANTA FE – Secretary of State Dianna Duran, responding to a lawsuit by the Democratic Party, said Friday that she is confident she was within the law to eliminate straight party voting on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.

“The state election code has no provision to allow for straight party ballots,” Duran said in a statement. She said the 2012 ballots “strictly follow New Mexico law.”

Democrats sued Duran on Thursday in state Supreme Court, claiming the Republican secretary of state exceeded her authority by eliminating the “Straight Party” box that voters in previous elections could check to vote for a party’s entire slate of candidates.

The high court on Friday ordered Duran to file a response to the lawsuit and ordered Democrats to provide more detail, including the effect it would have on voting in the coming election. The briefs are due by Tuesday.

The court had not decided whether to schedule oral arguments.

Duran says a section of the law that authorized straight ticket voting was taken off the books in 2001 and never re-enacted. The Democratic Party argues there is yet another section of the law that authorizes it.

Duran points to efforts by Democrats during the 2012 legislative session to pass a bill that explicitly provided for a straight party option on the ballot.

Sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, it cleared the Senate but never was voted on by the House.

Duran said the legislation amounted to “Democratic Party leaders’ own admission that straight party voting is not permitted” under current law.

The state Republican Party called straight party voting an “antiquated party boss tactic” and said Democrats should drop the suit.

State GOP Chairman Monty Newman said in a statement that voting laws should be changed in the Legislature, not in a “last-minute attack by partisan Democrat operatives in a rush to court.”
— This article appeared on page A4 of the Albuquerque Journal