The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill that would make bringing a firearm to a polling location unlawful on a 5-2 party-line vote on Friday evening after a lengthy discussion.
SB 5, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, was heavily amended in committee.
The bill prohibits a lawful firearm from being brought within 100 feet of a polling location. Wirth said he brought the bill because of concerns around the safety of poll workers in recent elections.
Wirth brought amendments to the bill which cleaned up some language. The committee also amended the bill to allow a person to keep a lawful firearm in a vehicle and keep the gun in the vehicle in the parking lot when driving up to a polling location. Otherwise, Wirth said, a person who keeps a gun in their vehicle would have to park 100 feet from the polling location. Another amendment passed struck some language that created an exemption for guards hired to protect a polling location, which led to a discussion about whether that could violate federal law.
Sen. Mark Moores, R-Rio Rancho, tried to amend the bill to exempt licensed conceal and carry gun holders with the provision that the gun owner kept the firearm concealed.
Wirth said there is already a state statute that does not allow conceal and carry firearms on school premises which, since many polling locations are on school premises, the amendment would create conflicting language. Wirth said there was also a philosophical disagreement.
Cervantes said he has a conceal and carry permit and that even with the provision that someone with that permit would have to keep the firearm concealed, there are ways to subtly reveal the gun. He also pointed out that it would put election officials into a position of having to confront a person with a firearm under a conceal and carry permit to better conceal the weapon.
That amendment failed by a 6-3 vote, along party lines.
Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca, R-Belen, successfully amended the bill to say that a gun could not be brought within a 100 feet of a container for votes within 28 days of an election. Baca said that eliminated a concern Republicans had about a lack of a time limit around gun restrictions around the containers placed outside polling locations for absentee and early voting.
The bill heads next to the Senate floor.
The committee had an extended discussion when Cervantes said Wirth would have to create a committee substitute of SB 5, which would clean up the amended bill, before he brought it to the Senate chamber.
But before the committee could decide on that, Cervantes said the committee would end after hearing SB 5 and reconvene early on Saturday morning. This led Moores protesting that the Democrats held up the committee by an hour and a half because of a lack of a quorum.
After a discussion among members about the best way to proceed and a 10-minute recess, Cervantes said he would continue the committee that evening and hear more bills and hold the next committee on Monday morning.