On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee rammed through Democrats’ extremist S.B. 8 amendment to S.B. 144 — turning the formerly two-page bill about election judge safety into an over 165-page bill that will allow for unsecured ballot drop boxes, 16-year-olds voting in municipal elections, widespread ballot harvesting, and removal of security measures on ballots.
Judiciary Chairwoman Gail Chasey (D-Bernalillo) only allowed for 25 minutes of public comment on either side, with even Democrat county clerks questioning the motives of the night-hour tactics to desperately ram through the bill no one has had a chance to read.
Democrat Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover was skeptical of the lengthy amendments, questioning why the bill’s sponsor and his expert witness, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, did not consult county clerks. “Perhaps you should include some of the clerks in the discussion.”
During commentary against the radical amendments to the bill, Chairwoman Chasey repeatedly silenced and muted attendees whom she disagreed with. After the comments, she claimed, “this is a safe space to speak your mind,” with the caveat, “I don’t allow comments from our members to attack members or their witnesses. And I do not allow imputation of terrible motives like ‘treason’ to any of our members. There were a couple of times I cut people off for that reason.”
Naturally, commenters in support of the amendment, despite many of them saying they had no idea what was in the language that they had no time to read, were not cut off by Chasey.
After some discussion from the committee members, Chasey demanded the Committee take a vote despite multiple representatives still waiting to ask questions of the bill sponsor. One of those representatives was Rep. Bill Rehm (R-Bernalillo) who was not called on yet for questions. He noted his hand had been up to speak, but Chasey gagged him. The committee rammed through S.B. 144 with its amendments by a vote of 9-3, with Rehm voting against it but “under protest.”
The radical legislation now heads to the House floor for final consideration in that chamber before making its way back to the Senate for a concurrence vote. The concurrence vote will be a key factor in its defeat, as the Senate has rules set in place to stop the logrolling of legislation like this. The public is urged to contact all legislators to vote “NO” on S.B. 144.
CONTACT NM REPRESENTATIVES TO VOTE NO ON SB144!
If the button does not work for you, please add these email addresses in your BCC line of a new email: eliseo.alcon@nmlegis.gov, anthony.allison@nmlegis.gov, phelps.anderson@nmlegis.gov, deborah.armstrong@nmlegis.gov, gail@gailfornewmexico.com, brian.baca@nmlegis.gov, karen.bash@nmlegis.gov, rachel.black@nmlegis.gov, kay.bounkeua@nmlegis.gov, c.brown.nm55@gmail.com, micaela.cadena@nmlegis.gov, ambrose.castellano@nmlegis.gov, christine.chandler@nmlegis.gov, gail@gailchasey.com, jack.chatfield@nmlegis.gov, zachary.cook@nmlegis.gov, randal.crowder@nmlegis.gov, art.delacruz@nmlegis.gov, meredith.dixon@nmlegis.gov, rebecca.dow@nmlegis.gov, brian.egolf@nmlegis.gov, daymon.ely@nmlegis.gov, csecows@aol.com, kelly.fajardo@nmlegis.gov, joanne.ferrary@nmlegis.gov, natalie.figueroa@nmlegis.gov, doreen.gallegos@nmlegis.gov, hgarciad69@gmail.com, miguel.garcia@nmlegis.gov, joy.garratt@nmlegis.gov, JasonHarperNM@gmail.com, joshua.hernandez@nmlegis.gov, pamelya.herndon@nmlegis.gov, susan.herrera@nmlegis.gov, dayan.hochman-vigil@nmlegis.gov, dwonda.johnson@nmlegis.gov, RYAN@LANEFORLIBERTY.COM, raymundo.lara@nmlegis.gov, derrick.lente@nmlegis.gov, stefani.lord@nmlegis.gov, georgene.louis@nmlegis.gov, tara.lujan@nmlegis.gov, patricia.lundstrom@nmlegis.gov, willie.madrid@nmlegis.gov, antonio.maestas@nmlegis.gov, javier.martinez@nmlegis.gov, marian.matthews@nmlegis.gov, matthew.mcqueen@nmlegis.gov, roddmontoya@gmail.com, roger.montoya@nmlegis.gov, greg.nibert@nmlegis.gov, kristina.ortez@nmlegis.gov, randall.pettigrew@nmlegis.gov, jpandp@comcast.net, bill.rehm@nmlegis.gov, andrea@andrearomero.com, andres.romero@nmlegis.gov, pat.roybalcaballero@nmlegis.gov, angelica.rubio@nmlegis.gov, debbie.sarinana@nmlegis.gov, larry.scott@nmlegis.gov, linda.serrato@nmlegis.gov, nathan.small@nmlegis.gov, jamesstrickler@msn.com, candie.sweetser@nmlegis.gov, luis.terrazas@nmlegis.gov, liz.thomson@nmlegis.gov, townsend@pvtn.net, christine.trujillo@nmlegis.gov, martin.zamora@nmlegis.gov
This is language you can add in your email body. Feel free to tweak as you like:
Dear Representative, I am emailing to OPPOSE Senate Bill 144, which was amended in the dead of night to add 165 pages of new, dangerous language. The amendments include measures to harm our elections and rip away the voices of New Mexicans, especially from marginalized and underserved communities like senior citizens, low-income families, and others. This bill will permit votes to be harvested from our seniors and forged ballots that will cancel out the voices of New Mexicans — creating widespread voter suppression. For these reasons and others, please vote NO on voter suppression SB 144. We cannot allow New Mexico to become the wild west of voter fraud. Thank you.
The legislation still does not have a place on the latest House floor calendar uploaded to the Legislature’s website at 1:06 a.m. on Wednesday, but that could chance on a dime. The Piñon Post will continue to keep you updated on the latest. The most up-to-date info can be found on Twitter.
In the House Government, Elections, and Indian Affairs Committee, radical gas tax on the poor S.B. 14 has stalled, with a committee vote on the measure being pushed to the next meeting. As of Wednesday, there is no scheduled meeting for the committee. With another hurdle looming for the bill’s final passage in the House, the bill appears to be dead.
The liberal democrats have pushed NM so far down the hole I seriously doubt it will ever recover. MLG will get re-elected with the latest voter fraud and continue her tyranny.
All I care about is my EBT payment!
Not sure what we can do. Emailed everyone and they are not listening. Sad for New Mexico. Time to move.
Pray and don’t give up, stand in prayer and anything you can do