Sandoval County board approves cancellation of 3,577 inactive voter registrations

At its March 13 meeting, the Sandoval County Board of Registration voted to cancel 3,577 voter registrations the county elections staff had identified as inactive after state confirmation mailings.

The board approved the certification unanimously after staff described how the Secretary of State’s confirmation mailings and county processing produce the inactive list, answered members’ questions about voter ID numbers, and detailed ongoing efforts to research questionable records such as registrations tied to P.O. boxes and people age 100 or older.

Chief Deputy (Sandoval County Clerk’s Office) told the board that the Secretary of State ran confirmation mailings in three batches — dated Aug. 6, Aug. 15 and Aug. 17, 2022 — and that the statewide total of confirmation postcards was 163,794, of which 12,820 were sent to Sandoval County. The chief deputy said the inactive list for board consideration is generated only from the Secretary of State’s confirmation mailing and related rules in statute. “They were sent August 6, fifteenth and seventeenth of 2022 in 3 batches,” the chief deputy said. The office said the county’s current cancellation list reflected the August 2022 mailing; later mailings and updates affect future lists.

Board members pressed staff on several operational details. Members asked why some names on the list had very old voting histories — in some samples the last recorded vote dated to the 1990s — and staff explained that undeliverable or returned mail from the 2022 mailing is what produced the inactive-status records now before the board. The chief deputy also said staff cross-reference obituary and death records and maintain an internal list of potential corrections; those checks are ongoing and may remove names from the cancellation list before certification.

Members raised concerns about registrations that use P.O. boxes. Staff reported there are 139 registrations on the county’s list with a primary address that is a post office box; staff noted 80 of those 139 voted in the most recent election and said the office is working to correct addresses where statute requires a physical residential address. The county’s elections staff said commercial mailbox addresses are blocked for new registrations but that correcting existing records requires outreach and coordination with the Secretary of State and legal review.

The board also discussed technical and resourcing limits. Staff described a small registration team of four people who manage voter files and said the state’s voter system (acquired by the Secretary of State in previous years) constrains what local staff can query and report. The county uses the IV3 vendor and the U.S. Postal Service National Change of Address service for some address updates, and staff said automatic voter registration at motor vehicle offices (scheduled to take effect statewide July 1) should improve address accuracy going forward.

On voter ID numbers, staff clarified that when a voter record is marked deceased that voter ID number is not reissued, and that voters who move between New Mexico counties generally retain the same voter ID to preserve voting history. Regarding reactivation after purge, staff said, “once you vote to purge them, that is it. They start all over again,” meaning canceled registrations must be refiled as a new registration.

The board spent time sampling individual records privately (off the live stream) so members could review scanned mailers and voter files tied to particular entries. Staff said they will provide updated minutes reflecting clerical corrections previously requested by members and will deliver a final, signed certification reflecting the reduced cancellation number.

Votes at a glance - Motion to approve the agenda: approved (unanimous). - Motion to approve minutes of Feb. 27 with clerical corrections and additional wording about staff follow-up on voter ID questions: approved (unanimous). - Motion to approve certification canceling 3,577 voter registrations identified as inactive from the Secretary of State confirmation mailing: approved (unanimous).

The board directed staff to continue targeted follow-up on records flagged during the meeting and to provide sampled voter files and updated minutes to members by email. The clerk’s office said county party chairs will be notified about appointments for the next board in June, with a July deadline for appointments.

(Reporting note: quotations and procedural details above are taken from public comments and staff presentations during the Sandoval County Board of Registration meeting on March 13; members reviewed voter files in a private sampling session that was not broadcast.)