By LILY ALEXANDER
The Santa Fe New Mexican

Two bills aimed at shielding New Mexico’s elections from federal action — particularly the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to the polls — are making their way through the New Mexico Senate.

The measures, which cleared the Senate Rules Committee on party-line votes Wednesday morning, would make it a felony in New Mexico for federal troops to be deployed to polling places and ban the carrying of firearms at polling places in most cases, building on a ban on guns at polling places passed in 2024.

“The Constitution reserves to the states the authority to conduct elections, and that authority is being tested,” Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque, said at Wednesday morning’s Rules Committee hearing.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to consider the bills Wednesday night but decided to put them off. If they make it through that committee they will head to the full Senate.

Republican senators walked out of the Rules Committee before committee debate on the gun bill — Senate Bill 261 — and Democrats had to bring in previously excused Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, to get back to a quorum.

“It’s really unfortunate and sad for my Republican colleagues that the only thing they seem to be doing here in Santa Fe is trying to stall things, and a lot of us have more important things in our lives to be doing other than watching them stall,” Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, the sponsor of SB 261, said after the hearing.

Republican senators told a New Mexican reporter they left because they were called to the Senate floor.

Duhigg: Can’t trust the feds

If passed, Senate Bill 264 — sponsored by Duhigg and four others — would create a new section of the state Election Code that would make it a fourth-degree felony for a person “acting under color of law or otherwise” to deploy a troop in the country’s civil, military or naval services to New Mexico’s polling places, unless necessary to “repel armed enemies of the United States.”

President Donald Trump earlier this month called for a federal takeover of elections. Last week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she could not guarantee ICE would not be at polling places during the November midterms.

Duhigg said federal law already prohibits stationing troops at polling places.

“But sadly, we’re at a point where we can no longer rely upon our federal government to follow federal laws or uphold the U.S. Constitution,” she said. “I genuinely hope that no one in New Mexico will ever have to rely on the provisions in the bill that we’re going to talk about today. But I’m not willing to risk New Mexicans’ most fundamental constitutional right — the right to free and fair elections to select representatives of their choosing.”

Under SB 264, if Trump deployed soldiers to secure a county’s polling places on Election Day, the officials who carried out that order would be in violation of New Mexico law, not just federal law, Duhigg said, giving New Mexico law enforcement the authority to act.

The bill would also make it a fourth-degree felony to make or alter voter qualifications beyond what New Mexico law requires. This would mean federal agencies would be in violation of state law if they issued guidance stating New Mexico had to require proof-of-citizenship documents at polling places, for example, Duhigg said.

“This bill does not prevent legitimate federal oversight; it doesn’t conflict with federal law,” Duhigg said. “What it does is ensure New Mexico has legal tools to protect our elections from unlawful interference, whatever the source.”

The bill also sets procedures for elections in emergencies — a provision pulled from a bill that was approved by the Senate Rules Committee last year, said Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver.

This part is a response to natural disasters in recent years that have impacted elections by displacing people from the counties where they vote, she said.

“Essentially what this does … is that we allow those individuals who are voters in a county where an emergency order has been issued to vote the same way our military and overseas voters are able to vote, through an electronic portal,” Toulouse Oliver said.

Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, said she was concerned this would not work for residents of rural areas impacted by natural disasters. She said she has heard strong opposition to the bill from county clerks in rural counties.

“I see that in an attempt to message something that’s happening on a national level, we may in fact be disenfranchising votes of rural New Mexico,” Brantley said.

‘Primarily targeted at ICE’

If passed, SB 261 would amend the crime of unlawful possession of a firearm at a polling place to remove most of the current exceptions.

Currently, law enforcement officers, people with concealed carry permits and people conducting lawful, non-election-related business are exempt.

“This bill quite simply prohibits law enforcement from carrying firearms within proximity of polling locations, and that would be primarily targeted at ICE,” Cervantes said.

An amendment to the bill would allow law enforcement officers to respond to a call — guns in tow — if it comes from an “appropriate person,” such as a judge or county clerk, Cervantes said.

After public comment, the four Republicans on the Rules Committee gathered their things and walked out of the committee room.

“Guess they just love your bill so much, senator, that they want us to pass it singlehandedly,” Duhigg said.

After several minutes, Stewart arrived and the six Democratic senators voted unanimously to advance the bill.

Staff writer Daniel J. Chacón contributed to this report.