The lawsuit names Secretary of State Dianna Duran, a Republican, as the defendant. Her office has contended that state law doesn't specifically authorize the straight ticket option, which has been a long-standing feature of New Mexico ballots until this general election.
The lawsuit contends that state law authorizes straight ticket voting because it requires a political party's name and emblem "to designate the ticket of that political party on all ballots." "The reference to ticket creates the distinct right on the ballot to vote for all candidates that belong to the party," the lawsuit said.
In this election, however, the secretary of state has placed political party emblems next to the names of each presidential candidate.
The lawsuit contends that will confuse voters, who may think they have voted a straight party ticket by filling in the ballot space next to a presidential candidate. Those voters would then stop voting, the lawsuit said, and never actually support candidates in a wide range of other contests, including the U.S. Senate and Legislature. The lawsuit includes sworn statements from registered voters saying the lack of a straight party ticket option limited their ballot options. One Santa Fe man said in his affidavit that a sample ballot in this year's election "looks like a straight party option when it is not."
State law once required lever-type voting machines to offer the straight ticket option. But that provision was eliminated a decade ago after those machines were no longer used. Democrats, concerned about what might happen in the general election, tried unsuccessfully to pass a bill in this year's legislative session to make clear that straight ticket voting was required.
In the 21st century, how backwards is this type of voting.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
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