Deadly Roswell flood knocked out a polling site, in reminder of climate change’s threats to voting

People leave the Roswell Mall on Oct. 28, 2024, which houses one of the Chaves County early voting sites. Chaves County had to request a judge to change to one of its Election Day sites after a storm and deadly flooding struck the city of Roswell last week, a reminder of the impact climate disasters is having on elections. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)

ROSWELL – When a deadly, record-breaking storm inundated Roswell earlier this month, it not only wrecked homes and businesses, it knocked an Election Day voting center out of commission.

The city’s convention hall was waterlogged and covered in mud. That sent Chaves County Clerk Cindy Fuller in search of a new polling site for Nov. 5, which requires a judge’s permission. Fifth Judicial District Judge Dustin Hunter signed off on the request, and now voting will take place at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church instead of the Roswell Convention and Civic Center.

“We wanted to keep it basically in the same area,” Fuller said.

Early voting was already underway throughout the state, and the convention center wasn’t being used for that. But a disaster just weeks before the final day of voting has become a stark reality in New Mexico and beyond, to the threats climate change poses to the right to cast a ballot.

The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office is asking lawmakers to pass legislation to better prepare for and respond to threats from climate disasters, said Alex Curtas, a spokesperson for the state election agency. 

Exact wording for any proposed law to address climate threat scenarios is in a “nascent stage,” he said, but is planned to be put forward in the 2025 New Mexico legislative 60-day session, set to start in January. 

Currently, all changes to county’s elections – such as polling site moves – must be approved by a district judge before being enacted. Neither state elections officials, nor counties can make that move without a court’s permission, Curtas said.

The state has made some moves to address preparation and communication between county clerks, the state’s elections office and emergency management personnel, Curtas said. 

“There needs to be a more standardized set of procedures for the state as these climate emergencies become more and more common,” Curtas said. “While there are some back end things we do now to prepare, and have lines of communication open, we are still looking for better procedures to be put in place at the state level.” 

The Oct. 19 storm dumped a record-breaking 5.78 inches of rain that state officials blame for two deaths. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham requested federal aid Monday to address the costs in Roswell, as the state and local officials try to tally up the storm’s damages. 

The storm hit just days before the last day to request an absentee ballot, and Fuller asked the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office if she could extend the county’s deadlines for mail-in ballots, but was denied. 

Mandy Vigil, the secretary’s Election Director for the state, said in an email that state law has no means to extend deadlines, “under any circumstances.” 

In an interview last week, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) told Source NM said climate disasters in New Mexico pose both physical and mental threats.

“People think about flooding at this level when you’re in a hurricane or tropical storm,” Leger Fernández said about the devastation in Roswell. “We’re in the middle of America, in an arid part of the county, and we’re seeing a storm that can do this kind of damage – this is a shock to people’s sense of security.” 

Climate change from the burning of fossil fuels is driving disasters to become more destructive, as rising temperatures supercharge storms and wildfire conditions. 

Other New Mexico areas hit hard in recent months faced no changes to election plans. Lincoln and Otero counties had a combination of wildfires and flooding that destroyed hundreds of homes, but polling locations for both early voting and Election Day were intact and remain unchanged, county election officials told Source NM.

In 2022, the state’s largest wildfires impacted the primary elections and forced Mora County to move polling locations and offer more information on requesting absentee ballots. All has “returned to normal,” for the 2024 General Election, said Vivan Trujillo, Mora County’s clerk.

Election operations have been disrupted in parts of  North Carolina and Florida that are reeling from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Damage from Helene and Milton have disrupted mail delivery, prevented voters from registering in time for deadlines during evacuations and wreaked havoc on critical infrastructure, such as power and internet connections.