Good Morning:
Chairman Ney; Representative Millender-McDonald; distinguished members of the committee; thank you for your invitation to address the committee today.
My name is Rebecca Vigil-Giron.
I currently serve as Secretary of State for New Mexico and as President of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
Almost four years ago, I testified before this committee as a member of the National Elections Standards Task Force to set forth our recommendations for the Help America Vote Act. Today I am here to report on the effect of HAVA’s implementation in New Mexico.
Federal funding for voter equipment, statewide data bases, poll worker training and voter education were made possible by HAVA and it has made our electoral process better.
Last November, the mandates of the Help America Vote Act were tested nationwide for the first time by a presidential election.
In New Mexico the presidential election was fiercely contested and it ended up being one of the closest in the nation. New Mexico lived up to it’s reputation as a battleground state. We prepared for the election with an unprecedented non-partisan voter education program that was one of the most successful in the country.
We excelled in our mandate to fully educate voters on voting procedures, voting rights and voting technology.
Television and radio spots informed the public in English, Spanish and Navajo languages on issues ranging from voter registration, to early voting, absentee and provisional voting.
With a total population of only 1.9 million, New Mexico now, for the first time, has over 1 million registered voters.
From January 1st through October we had over 152,000 newly registered voters which represents an increase of over 15 percent in the total number of registered voters.
The success of our television and radio voter education programs were largely responsible for increasing voter turnout by 26 percent over the presidential election of 2000. Over 160,000 new voters went to the polls in November 2004.
For the first time ever, over 50 percent of New Mexico citizens cast their ballots through absentee and early voting.
Over 18,000 New Mexicans cast provisional ballots for the first time, and even though not all of these were ballots counted in the end, not a single person was disenfranchised in New Mexico.
Uniform standards for the acceptance or rejection of provisional ballots will need further refinement in New Mexico and in all states.
I am very proud of how New Mexico compares to other states in the management of it’s election systems.
We have a solid foundation to build on, not just in New Mexico, but in our country as a whole.
New Mexico is the only state in the union with a state constitution mandating electoral information be provided in both English and Spanish.
We have also met the challenge of Native American languages representing the Navajo Nation, the Mescalero and Apache Nations, and 19 Pueblo Nations.
New Mexico leads the nation in this area. The Help America Vote Act will be a tremendous asset towards reaching language equity for voters in all states with large minority populations.
We are just months away from completing the installation of our new statewide voter registration system.
New Mexico will be one of only a handful of states with a central system in place, and in full compliance with HAVA by the end of the year.
We are greatly benefitting from this new system that accelerates information management and results in a more accurate voter roll. For example:
We have fewer duplicate registrations. When a new registrant is entered, the system gives a message if they are already registered in another county and allows the new county to immediately transfer that voter from the old county.
We can better ensure that only legitimate voters are on our rolls by using our new statewide deceased and felon files.
We are able to provide a backup data center for disaster recovery; something New Mexico counties could not afford on their own.
My office always has an accurate, up to date voter file. We no longer have to depend on monthly updates that were subject to human error.
Advanced technologies such as bar codes and document scanning make public employees more efficient, saving taxpayer dollars.
This system is a significant advancement in election technology which was made possible through the funding from HAVA.
It is a tribute to the foresight and vision of this committee.
Following yet another close presidential election, we cannot relent in our duty to build the confidence of the people in our election systems.
I urge you as members of this important committee to continue support for full funding of HAVA.
I have full confidence that with your support we will finish the job of protecting our democracy for future generations.
Whatever our party affiliation, it is our duty to firmly re-establish the electoral foundation of our democracy and to prepare it for the demands of the future.
We will be partners towards this goal, and we will succeed.
Thank you and may God bless you in the New Year.
