Ballot box security remains priority for officials and law enforcement across New Mexico

RIO RANCHO, N.M. — There was growing concern Tuesday over election safety as police in Oregon and Washington were investigating fires at multiple ballot drop boxes, and no matter how or when you vote you want to know your decision is safe and counted.

Because of the fires in Oregon and Washington potentially hundreds of ballots were affected.

The incidents even caused New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver to issue a statement re-assuring voters that their ballots are safe here.

Every ballot box in New Mexico is monitored with 24-7 video surveillance, the Sandoval County Clerk’s office said, and in the county the three ballot drop boxes are kept locked all day until an approved election bureau worker picks them up.

The boxes are emptied once a day at close of business, and the Sandoval County Chief Deputy Clerk gave KOB a run through of what happens to absentee ballots after you drop it off in a ballot box.

“Our messengers will pick up the ballot boxes, or the ballots from the boxes they come in here, and they go into phase one, which is basically reviewing the social security last four of the social make sure that signatures are affixed to the absentee ballot. And then it goes in. Goes into phase two, where we do a chain of custody from the clerk’s office to the absentee board. And then they go through their phases. Once the board takes possession of the ballot,” Joey Dominguez said.

Every ballot is processed by hand in batches of 50 in Sandoval County and kept locked in a secure locker at the election bureau he said.

That office is patrolled by a 24-hour rotation of Sandoval County Sheriff’s deputies.

The ballot drop boxes are not fire retardant but with the help of law enforcement, they’re kept secure and monitored constantly said Dominguez.

The Sheriff’s Office said it’s preparing for anything.

“As far as having response teams, we went ahead and created that as well. So that should we have any incidents that occur, we have some of our response teams, our tactical unit on standby,” Lt. John Castaneda Sandoval said.

Absentee/mail in ballots should be mailed back to your county clerk no later than October 29 to make sure they arrive on time.

So, if you missed the mail in deadline today you can still drop them off at any polling location or a ballot drop box before 7 p.m. on election day.

Polling locations in Sandoval County and Bernalillo County can be found by clicking on those links.