New Mexico

Status of Audit Legislation: 
Signed into law in 2009
Link to Text of Legislation: 
New Mexico's Law (Title 1, Section 1-14-13.2, "Post-election duties; voting system check" and 1-14.13.3, General election audit)
Notes: 

State Summary

 

New Mexico is one of only a few states for which the audit may escalate to a full recount and makes use of a unique sampling method which assures that the probability of detecting errors or fraud, that would change the outcome of the election, is at least ninety percent for any reported margin of victory. The law for this audit became effective in 2009 and replaced an earlier law signed in 2005 requiring 2% of the voting machines to be audited. The audit is conducted for specific offices (all federal offices, the governor, and the statewide office unofficially won by the smallest margin), and can lead to a full recount, making it binding upon the official results.

Sampling Method: 

Tiered

Trigger: 

If the winning margin decreases and the error rate based on the difference between the vote totals of hand recounts of the paper ballots and the original precinct vote totals exceeds ninety percent of the winning margin for an office, another sample equal in size to the original sample shall be selected and the original precinct vote totals compared to the vote totals of hand recounts. The error rate based on the first and second sample shall be reported, and if it exceeds ninety percent of the winning margin for the office, the state canvassing board shall order that a full hand recount of the ballots for that office be conducted.

Oversight: 
Secretary of State
Who Conducts the Audit?: 
County Clerks
Location of Random Selection: 
The statute does not specify the location.
Types of Voting Machines in Use: 
Optical Scan Machines For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=New%20Mexico
Races that are Audited: 
For all federal offices, for governor and for the statewide elective office, other than the office of the governor, for which the winning candidate won by the smallest percentage margin of all candidates for statewide office in New Mexico.
Voting Units that are Audited: 
Precincts
Timeline for Audit: 

The auditor shall publicly select a random sample of precincts from a pool of all precincts in the state no later than twelve days after the election... and The county clerks shall report their results to the auditor within ten days of the notice to conduct the voting system chec

Local Contact Person: 
Paul Stokes, United Voters of New Mexico
Email contact form
Additional Resources: 
New Mexico Secretary of State