7-24-2024 9:46am

Ballot Questions and Facts Clarified with Secretary of State After Biden Withdrawal

Chris Edwards Editor

Disinformation again creeps into social media; with President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race there has already been misinformation circulating about the nomination process, ballots and more in New Mexico.

AlamogordoTownNews.org and streaming KALHRadio.org wants to share the facts and end local disinformation, thus we reached out to the New Mexico Secretary of States office for facts.

Secretary Toulouse Oliver said in the statement that “New Mexico follows major party rules for the selection of presidential candidates and, as long as they meet the ballot deadline of August 27, 2024, whoever is nominated for president at the upcoming Democratic Convention will appear on New Mexico’s General Election ballot.”

Secretary Oliver also reminded voters to use trusted sources for election information such as county clerk’s and her office and “to verify information about voting and elections before repeating or reposting it.”

Biden won the New Mexico Democratic Primary in June, 2024 which means that voters allocated delegates to the Democratic Convention for the formal nomination.

“Now that Biden has withdrawn from the race, he released his pledged delegates who will choose how they wish to allocate their votes at the convention, along with the unpledged delegates,” according to the statement.

Biden directed his delegates to cast their vote to Kamala Harris and since all major party leaders have as well thus Harris is nie the official "presumptive noninee."

The New Mexico Secretary of State also noted that.the law does not provide for holding another primary election, nor would another primary be necessary under the Democratic Party rules that govern delegates.

Biden’s campaign will need to file a notarized statement of withdrawal as a candidate and forward it to the Secretary of States office before Aug. 27, 2024 to remove his name from the ballot. The presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris campaign is reviewing each states rules to emsure the process is being followed to ensure she is on every ballot.