A. A voted ballot shall be returned by the voter-participant to the appropriate county clerk. A voted ballot from a voter-participant shall be considered timely if it is received no later than the deadline for receiving mailed absentee ballots or mailed ballots pursuant to Section 1-6-10 NMSA 1978.

B. When a voted ballot is received from a voter-participant, the appropriate county clerk or election board shall compare the random identifier provided by the voter-participant under the privacy flap to the list of random identifiers provided by the administrator for that election. If the random identifier appears in both places, the appropriate county clerk shall verify that the verification code assigned to that random identifier for that election matches the verification code provided by the voter-participant under the privacy flap in lieu of the voter's signature. If the verification code is on the list provided by the administrator for use in that election and matches the random identifier assigned by the administrator to identify the voter-participant, the ballot shall be qualified and processed in the same manner as mailed absentee ballots or mailed ballots received and qualified in that election.

C. If either the random identifier or the verification code is missing, or if the random identifier and verification code under the privacy flap do not match, the ballot shall not be qualified and shall be disposed of in the same manner as mailed absentee ballots or mailed ballots received in that election and not qualified.

D. Following an election and within the time frames provided in the Election Code, the appropriate county clerk shall provide to the administrator using the random identifier for that election the voter credit information for each voter-participant who voted and the appropriate notations for any voter-participant whose election mail was returned as undeliverable.

History: Laws 2019, ch. 226, § 7.

Effective dates. — Laws 2019, ch. 226, § 13 made Laws 2019, ch. 226, § 7 effective July 1, 2019.