A. Certificates of registration, if in proper form, shall be processed and filed by the county clerk as follows:
(1) a voter information document shall be delivered or mailed to the voter; and
(2) the original certificate shall be filed alphabetically by surname and inserted into the county register pursuant to Section 1-5-5 NMSA 1978.
B. The county clerk shall, on Monday of each week, process all certificates of registration that are in proper form and that were received in the county clerk's office up to 5:00 p.m. on the preceding Friday. The county clerk shall not process certificates of registration when the registration books are closed pursuant to Section 1-4-8 NMSA 1978, during the county canvass or during the period of time following the county canvass when voter credit is entered into the voter registration electronic management system, provided such credit is entered for all voters no later than forty-five days following an election.
History: 1953 Comp., § 3-4-10, enacted by Laws 1969, ch. 240, § 68; 1987, ch. 249, § 9; 1993, ch. 314, § 11; 1993, ch. 316, § 11; 1995, ch. 198, § 6; 2003, ch. 356, § 13; 2015, ch. 145, § 18.
ANNOTATIONSThe 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, amended the duties of the county clerk relating to processing certificates of registration, and removed the provision stating that the contents of certificates of registration, with certain exceptions, are public record; in Paragraph (1) of Subsection A, after "a voter", deleted "identification card" and added "information document"; in Subsection B, after "were received in", deleted "his" and added "the county clerk's", and added the last sentence of the subsection; and deleted Subsection C.
The 2003 amendment, effective July 1, 2003, inserted the exception in Subsection C.
The 1995 amendment, effective April 6, 1995, substituted "a voter identification card" for "the voter's copy of the certificate" in Paragraph (1) of Subsection A; in Subsection B, substituted "that" for "which" and inserted "and" following "form"; and in Subsection C, substituted "The contents of" for "Original" and deleted "and their contents" following "registration".
The 1993 amendment,. effective June 18, 1993, substituted "Certificates" for "Affidavits", "certificate" for "affidavit", and "certificates" for "affidavits" throughout the section and made several minor stylistic changes.
Right to copy voter registration records. — The right to inspect or examine public records, such as voter registration, commonly includes the right of making copies thereof as the right to inspect would be valueless without this correlative right. 1959 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 59-170.
Clerk must accept affidavits in proper order even if from different office. — Affidavits which are in the proper order, acknowledged by a notary public, even though not obtained from the county clerk's office which has to register the voter have to be accepted by the county clerk. 1952 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 52-5505.