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This message is from Ellen Pinnes and The Disability Coalition.
REMINDER: The Disability Coalition’s Disability Rights Awareness Day 2025 events will begin with a webinar about voting and making your voice heard in this fall’s election, next Tuesday, October 1, from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. Annie Elliott with Disability Rights New Mexico will join us to present and there will be time for Q&A. There is no charge to attend, but pre-registration is required.
We covered registering to vote in an earlier message — now, let’s turn our attention to voting! There are several ways you can do that:
- vote in person at your polling place on Election Day (Tuesday, November 5, 2024),
- vote early (before Election Day) in person, or
- vote by absentee ballot.
Voting by Absentee Ballot
This message explains the process for voting by absentee ballot. In future messages, we’ll give more information on early in-person voting and voting on Election Day.
First, a quick clarification on terminology. What we’re talking about here is completing your ballot at home and then returning it by mail or hand-delivery, rather than voting in person at a polling place. Absentee ballots are sometimes called “mail-in” ballots; the two terms refer to the same thing. Absentee ballots are safe and secure, so don’t hesitate to vote that way if you prefer not to go to a polling place to vote in person.
You don’t have to prove that you can’t vote in person in order to get an absentee ballot. In New Mexico, any registered voter who chooses to vote by absentee ballot can do so.
How to get an absentee ballot
New Mexico does not send ballots automatically to all registered voters. (You can choose to have an absentee ballot sent to you automatically for each statewide election. See later in this message for more information.) If you wish to vote by absentee ballot, there are several ways to request one:
- Fill out and submit your application online through the Secretary of State’s online portal.
- Download and print a copy of the application from the Secretary of State’s website. Fill it in, then mail it or hand-deliver it to the County Clerk’s office. To find out the location of the Clerk’s office in your county, or get contact information (phone, email, website), there’s a list on the Secretary of State’s website.
- Get an application for an absentee ballot from your County Clerk’s office. You may be able to download the application from the Clerk’s website and print it out, or you can contact them by phone or email to ask them to send one to you, or you can go to the Clerk’s office to pick up an application. Complete and sign the form and mail it in or hand-deliver it to the Clerk’s office.
Very little information is required to request an absentee ballot: your name and address as registered, the year you were born, and your signature.
You can request an absentee ballot now or anytime through Tuesday, October 22. The application must be received through the Secretary of State’s website or in the County Clerk’s office by 5:00 p.m. on October 22. You can check the status of your application through the Voter Information Portal on the Secretary of State’s website. If you apply for an absentee ballot and don’t get it, contact your County Clerk’s office by Tuesday, October 29.
Submitting your completed absentee ballot:
- The ballot will come to you in the mail, and will include an inner envelope and an outer envelope to be used in returning the ballot to the Clerk. The Clerk will send instructions along with your ballot. To make sure your vote is counted, follow those instructions exactly as to how to complete the ballot and prepare the envelopes it will be returned in.
- You can return the completed ballot by mail (postage is prepaid so there’s no cost to you), by delivering it to the County Clerk’s office, by placing it in a secured voting drop box, or by delivering it to an early voting or Election Day polling location. The ballot must be received by the Clerk’s office or delivered to a polling place by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 5. Ballots that are received after Election Day won’t be counted, even if they’re postmarked on or before that day. We recommend returning your ballot well before the deadline to make sure it arrives in time, especially if you’re mailing it in.
- You can return your completed ballot yourself, or your caregiver or a member of your immediate family or household can mail or deliver the ballot to the County Clerk for you. That includes a spouse or domestic partner, children, parents, grandchildren, grandparents, siblings, or a person with whom you have a continuing personal relationship. No one else is authorized to do this for you.
If you get an absentee ballot and then change your mind and want to vote in person, you can do that. When you go to the polling place for early voting or on Election Day, you’ll be asked to sign a sworn statement that you haven’t used and won’t use the absentee ballot. That ballot will be canceled and you’ll get a new one to use to vote at the polling site.
Requesting an Accessible Ballot
Voters who are blind or visually impaired can get an accessible ballot that allows them to use their own non-visual or low-vision technology to mark their ballot.
To get an accessible ballot, fill out the application online using the button below. An email address is required. The ballot will be sent to that address.
Signing up to get an absentee ballot sent to you automatically
If you want to get an absentee ballot sent to you without having to ask for it each time, you can opt into that service when you request an absentee ballot – check the box as part of Step 4–Ballot Delivery Method if you make the request online or check the box on the paper voter registration form. Absentee ballots can be sent automatically only to addresses in New Mexico.
Keep an eye out for future messages about voting. In the meantime, you can find lots of information on the Secretary of State’s website at www.NMVote.org or by going to www.sos.nm.gov and clicking on “Voting and Elections” at the top of the homepage. And be sure to join us for the webinar on October!!
The Disability Coalition is funded in part by the New Mexico Developmental Disabilities Planning Council through Federal Program funding. Additional funding is provided by The Arc of New Mexico, Disability Rights New Mexico, the Independent Living Resource Center, and New Vistas.
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