EPA Administrator Guts the Agency; Calls to Eliminate 31 Essential Rules
Deep harm to public lands, waters, wildlife and communities will result
SANTA FE – On March 25th, President Trump issued an unprecedented executive order on election processes that could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters if enacted. The order would amend the federal voter registration form to require documentary proof of citizenship in order to be eligible to vote in federal elections. It would allow federal agencies to cut funding to states deemed non-compliant and instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute what are characterized as “election crimes.” The order also seeks to block states from accepting mail-in ballots after election day, regardless of when they are mailed in.
The order expands on measures contained in the recently introduced “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility” (SAVE) Act, a top priority of Congressional House Republican leadership. The “SAVE” Act would not make elections safer, but would present another barrier to participation in our elections. Among those especially burdened would be military voters, tribal voters, rural voters, survivors of natural disasters, and tens of millions of married women in America who have changed their names.
In an article by The Guardian reporting from a variety of sources, fewer than half of all Americans have a valid passport, nearly 69 million women who have changed their names would struggle to produce matching documentation, and roughly 21 million voting-age Americans do not have a current, valid ID. State election systems use multiple federal databases – including from the Department of Homeland Security – to verify voter identity and eligibility and federal law prohibits non-citizens from voting. The director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in charge of overseeing election security in the United States, stated regarding the 2024 elections that “we have no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
In response, Conservation Voters New Mexico (CVNM) Chief Operating Officer Molly Taylor issued the following statement:
“The executive order (EO) and the SAVE Act are an attempt to strip the fundamental democratic right to vote from anyone who can’t produce documents that millions of Americans don’t have, can’t afford, or struggle to access. It would disenfranchise tens of millions of eligible voters, targeting working people, young voters, new Americans, married women who’ve changed their names, and Black and brown communities. The order represents the intersection of a long line of attacks on both immigrants and the electoral process, based on misinformation, disinformation, faulty data and fear tactics.
Here in New Mexico, we should not let our guard down because Trump’s EO is about federal elections. The threat to withhold election funding and penalize states in other ways will lead to equally draconian election access barriers across the country, affecting both federal and state elections. In the United States, it is the public that is supposed to hold elected leaders accountable through the ballot box. When people can’t vote – when certain classes of people can’t vote – elected leaders can act with impunity. With this action, it is clear that the Trump administration wants to dismantle the systems that support full participation in our democracy.
The Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, and the New Mexico legislature have enacted a series of measures expanding access, including opening eligibility to felons who have completed their prison terms and the country’s first-ever Native Voting Rights Act. Investing in election accessibility and integrity works: New Mexico’s elections were ranked best in the nation by the 2024 Elections Performance Index, a project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Data and Science Lab. We applaud our state leaders for making New Mexico’s elections more accessible, and urge further action to protect our democracy.”
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CVNM is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization connecting the people of New Mexico to their political power to protect our air, land, water, wildlife and communities for a healthy Land of Enchantment. CVNM does this by mobilizing voters, winning elections, holding elected officials accountable and advancing responsible public policies.