Thread: Voter ID bill good as dead in NM House

Voter ID bill good as dead in NM House, committee chairwoman says
By Milan Simonich / Santa Fe Bureau
Posted: 03/08/2011 11:34:30 AM MST

SANTA FE - A new bill that would require photo identification to vote is as good as dead, a key legislator said Tuesday.

With the session approaching its final 10 days, the bill does not have enough time to make it through the Legislature, said Rep. Mary Helen Garcia, chairwoman of the House Voters and Elections Committee.

Nonetheless, her 13-member committee will hold a hearing on the bill Thursday, two days after it originally was scheduled, said Garcia D-Las Cruces.

The sponsor, Rep. Cathrynn Brown, R-Carlsbad, filed a revised bill Monday night, necessitating a delay, Garcia said.

For her part, Brown said she had been ready to present her bill for two weeks.

Brown's proposal would require a government-issued photo ID to vote in

person, or a copy of a photo identification to vote by absentee ballot. Garcia's committee last month blocked a different bill that would have mandated photo identification only for in-person voters.

Democrats on Garcia's committee said that system would have created stricter standards for in-person voters and ignored absentee ballots, where most cases of voter fraud occur.

Brown said her bill should negate those criticisms.

She said she also had tried to counter a complaint that older voters often do not have valid driver's licenses or any other form of government identification. Brown said her measure would allow expired driver's licenses up to eight years old to qualify as identification at the polls.

Brown called her bill "the perfect compromise," but conceded that she faces a tight deadline.

"We're running out of time," she said.
Her proposal is HB 577.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_17565285

Democrats for voter fraud. Ya don't say.