As of Saturday, counties across New Mexico will expand voter locations for the June 2 primary beyond clerks’ offices.
In addition, more than 20 New Mexico counties will participate in a pilot program designed to modernize the poll challenging process via a digital tool.
According to Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark, a Democrat running in the primary election for secretary of state, her office conceived of and helped develop the tool. Correspondence with the company that developed the tool, which Clark shared with Source NM, appears to bolster that claim.
A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office, however, says that office developed the tool and Santa Fe County was simply the first to use it.
Under state law, county political party chairs can authorize challengers who must be able to hear voters check in at the polls and verify their names on the voter rolls.
The new digital tool, Clark’s office said in a news release this week, was developed to help streamline that process, particularly in busy polling places with multiple check-in stations where “it became increasingly difficult for a single challenger to effectively track voter activity without disrupting voter flow or slowing election workers.”
The tool, which will be used in 23 counties for the June 2 election, will allow challengers to research public voter registration information without risking voter privacy, according to Lindsey Bachman, director of communications, legislative and executive affairs for the Secretary of State’s Office.
Clark says that tool is based on software she ordered and used in the 2024 election cycle.
“Now we’re seeing it launch statewide,” she told Source NM. “This is one of the innovative things we have done in Santa Fe County that now the secretary of state has adopted.”
Clark also shared emails with Source NM from the vendor that developed that tool, including one from Robis Elections Inc. Director of Customer Development Rachel Jenkins that confirms to Clark that Santa Fe County partially covered development costs in 2024, and that state elections officials “determined they wanted to extend the pilot.”Robis Elections Inc., the vendor, did not respond to emails or voicemails from Source NM.
Bachman, however, told Source NM via email that state elections officials developed the tool in response to concerns raised by the New Mexico Republican Party in 2022.
Republican Party Chair Amy Barela provided Source NM with a copy of the written agreement between the party and the Secretary of State’s Office regarding challengers’ rights to access voter information at the polls.
“The Republican Party of New Mexico prides itself on election integrity,” Barela said in a statement, also provided to Source NM. “We are encouraged to see the results of the 2022 lawsuit finally come to fruition so that poll challengers will now be empowered to oversee the process and impose a legitimate challenge.”
It is unclear what lawsuit Barela is referring to and she was unavailable for additional comment prior to publication. According to Bachman, no such lawsuit exists over challenger access.
“The document reflects agreed upon stipulations between the Secretary of State’s Office and the Republican Party of New Mexico from 2022,” Bachman said. “No lawsuit was ultimately filed regarding this matter.”
After Santa Fe County piloted the technology, the Secretary of State’s Office received funding from the Legislature and “worked with a vendor to develop and implement the tool,” Bachman said.
Clark, however, maintains the creation of the tool in 2024 did not stem from any legal action, but instead was instigated by complaints from both Republican and Democratic challengers about the noise levels in the Santa Fe County fairgrounds precinct making it difficult for challengers to hear voters’ names.
Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin, who is running against Clark in the Democratic primary for secretary of state, oversees elections for one of the counties trying out the technology for the primary. She told Source NM she thinks the tool is “a really great system for counties to have access to.”
She also thinks Clark is taking undue credit.
“The vendor is the one who develops the software after you give them basically the parameters,” López Askin said.
She said Doña Ana County had requested a similar tool, but did not have the funds to pay for it in 2019.
“The reality is they have more money, they have more resources, they were able to purchase it, while we were not able to,” Askin López said.
