In the 2024 election, over 115,000 New Mexicans voted by mail according to the secretary of state’s office. But this year, New Mexico could be facing an unprecedented challenge from the Trump administration to restrict their access to absentee voting.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is facing pressure from New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, along with 24 attorneys general, to withdraw a new rule that would require states to share voter data with the federal government. The USPS proposed the rule to comply with President Donald Trump’s March executive order that directs USPS to not deliver their absentee ballots for voters in states that refuse to cooperate.
“The Postal Service’s proposed rule represents a significant and unnecessary threat to the right to vote that would create confusion, strain local election administrators, and jeopardize the timely delivery of ballots – risking the disenfranchisement of countless eligible voters,” Torrez said in a press release announcing that the group of attorneys general have filed a formal comment letter asking for the rule to be rescinded.
The letter argues that the USPS should withdraw the controversial rule because just a couple weeks ago, a federal judge decided that the executive order was unconstitutional. The decision arguing against the Trump administration’s attempt to collect voter data from states was clear: The executive order exceeded the president’s authority and his administration was prohibited from trying to implement it ahead of the November midterm elections.
“Implementation of the proposed rule would constitute unlawful interference with New Mexico’s election laws and violate USPS’s own governing statutes by the exercise of authority that has not been conferred by Congress to USPS,” Lindsey Bachman, the communications director for the secretary of state’s office said in an email response to Courier New Mexico. “The USPS has no authority to impose restrictions on the administration of elections by altering and restricting access to postal delivery of mail ballots, as the Proposed Rule purports to do.”
But the USPS has still yet to rescind the rule. Bachman said the secretary of state’s office hasn’t received any communication from USPS in regard to the proposed rule.
“The proposed rules ignore the existing legal right of every eligible voter in New Mexico to vote by mail,” said Bachman via email.
Bachman said the proposed rule would especially disenfranchise New Mexico’s large Native American population, who have expanded vote by mail protections due to the Native American Voting Rights Act.
“I feel badly for the post office. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Judy Williams, a board member of the League of Women Voters in New Mexico (LWVNM), told Courier New Mexico. “But they know that it’s logistically a nightmare, and they probably know it isn’t the right thing.”
Williams said that the LWVNM supports the New Mexico Attorney General office’s attempts to have the rule rescinded. She argues that the executive order that mandated the rule has bigger implications than simply restricting voting rights.
“It’s a smoke screen to be able to say, “If I don’t like the outcome of the election, then I can say, ‘We didn’t clean up the voting process, so therefore the election was rigged,’” Williams told Courier New Mexico. “It’s difficult to say this since we try not to support any party, but this is about supporting voting. The whole issue of people voting illegally is bogus.”
Bachman echoed Williams’ concerns: “The potential confusion created by the rule’s implementation might breed misinformation and a lack of trust beyond absentee voters, so it is hard to quantify the impact.”
The attempt to restrict absentee ballots is just one example of how the Republican Party has recently pushed for sweeping election reform across the country.
The Trump administration has been pushing for Congress to vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), a bill that would require voters to show a passport or birth certificate to cast their vote. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, these ID requirements could disenfranchise more than 20 million Americans.
Both of New Mexico’s Senators, Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-.N.M.) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), have opposed the act. It’s currently stalled in the Senate.
In email comments sent to Courier New Mexico, the secretary of state’s office argued that New Mexico’s elections are some of the most secure in the country, citing MIT’s Elections Performance Index.
“The proposed rule amounts to the proverbial wrench being thrown into the works of a high-performing machinery that will jam the gears and send the entire operation into disorder. New Mexico’s elections must not be upended by the rule’s provisions, and Secretary of State Toulouse Oliver has urged the USPS to withdraw it.
“The drop boxes are safe. The voting machines are safe. The ballot counting is safe.” concurred Wiliams. “And if you don’t believe it, become a poll worker.”
