Counties holding voter registration meetings

Curry and Roosevelt counties will be holding public hearings this week for their boards of registration to clean up voter registrations.

Curry County Clerk Annie Hogland and Roosevelt County Clerk Mandi Park both said voters are added to the removal list for registered voters when they remain inactive and have also not responded to a letter from the New Mexico Secretary of State office.

Park and Hogland said when registered voters submit a change of address form to state or federal entities, such as the post office, they are flagged for change of address, which means prior to an election, the SOS office sends them a letter reminding them to update their voter registration.

“Say someone just moved across town, and they update their address with the post office, but they don’t change it with us or get a new driver’s license,” Park said. “Telling the post office you’ve moved doesn’t get you a new driver’s license or a new voter registration, but it does red flag us that you’ve moved.”

Hogland said Curry County voters on the current removal list were sent this letter in August 2018 and have not responded to the letter and have also not been active voters in this time frame.

“You can be inactive for a very long time and not get on the list to be removed until you change your address,” said Park, so the change of address combined with the inactivity is what gets a voter added to the removal list.

The Curry County Board of Registration will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Curry County Complex. There are 750 people on the current removal list for Curry County.

Hogland said a link to a livestream of the meeting will be on the county website as well as a list of the voters on the removal list.

There are 305 people on the current Roosevelt County list, and the public hearing to vote for their removal will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Jake Lopez Building at the county fairgrounds.

“I think that one thing people might forget is that something they have on their voter registration is their physical address,” Hogland said. “Periodically, check your voter registration online and make sure everything’s up to date.”

She said voter registration can be checked at http://www.nmvote.org.