The New Mexico Election Transparency Network is a nonprofit organization based in Sandoval County, devoted to promoting secure and transparent elections in New Mexico and across the country.
In recent years, attendees of Sandoval County Commission meetings have heard from members of the New Mexico Election Transparency Network, including founder and Placitas resident John Veltri, advocating for secure and transparent elections during the public comment section.
The group seeks to address what it perceives as election vulnerabilities by unifying New Mexicans through communication, education and action to strengthen the state’s election system. The organization says that returning to paper ballots, implementing voter ID laws and eliminating drop boxes are essential steps toward ensuring fair and transparent elections.
“After observing what happened in the 2020 election, knowing what I know of my background and what the electronics are capable of because I helped build that technology,” Veltri said, “that started my thought process of, how can we do more?”
Veltri, the chairman of the organization, is a retired regional senior program telecommunications manager at Quest. He spent three decades building microwave, radio and cellular towers across over a dozen states.
Three documents guide the organization’s laws, rules, statutes and mandates — the Bible, the New Mexico Constitution and the United States Constitution.
“We’re all Christian, we think that the Bible is a good base to work from, along with the two most important documents when it comes to elections,” Veltri said. “If [people] don’t want to follow the guidelines according to the Bible, certainly follow the guidelines of the U.S. and state constitutions, because that is law and without that, then I don’t know why you’re even voting.”
According to Veltri, the New Mexico Election Transparency Network is a nonpartisan organization; however, the voting reforms it advocates — such as a one-day paper ballot vote without electronics, voter ID requirements, cleaning voter rolls and addressing absentee ballots and the early voting process — tend to align more closely with the preferences of Republican voters.
Recent data shows a significant gap in confidence regarding the fairness of the presidential election between Democrats and Republicans. According to the Pew Research Center, 77% of Democrats express confidence in a fair election, compared to 47% of Republicans.
While 81% of Republicans strongly favor photo identification requirements for voting, 30% of Democrats support it. Sixty-eight percent of Republicans support cleaning voter rolls by removing individuals from registration lists if they have not recently voted or confirmed their registration.
“In my opinion, if you remove some of those,” Veltri said. “You take those broken processes and make them better. You take the wrongs, you make a right once again and you have a fair and transparent election.”
According to Veltri, Sandoval County has made significant progress in becoming a leader among New Mexico’s 33 counties in ensuring fair and transparent elections. He mentioned his collaboration with Sandoval County Clerk Anne Brady-Romero in these efforts.
“Anne Brady-Romero’s actions speak louder than words,” Veltri said. “She’s worked diligently to ensure her team does the best job possible in cleaning up the voter rolls.”
He said Sandoval County has made significant progress, reducing the number of drop boxes from seven or more to just three, located at the Placitas Community Library, the Corrales Village Hall and the county administration building.
For her accomplishments, Brady-Romero has been recognized by New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver. Veltri hopes that more counties will follow her example.
The New Mexico Election Transparency Network has members who work with several counties in New Mexico, including Otero, Socorro, Bernalillo and Doña Ana, to improve election processes. There are also members in other states involved in similar efforts.
Through community outreach and collaboration with local officials, the organization strives to educate the public about voter rights. Their primary tool is the website, nmetnetwork.org. The site was designed to be easy to navigate, ensuring accessibility for all users.
What’s Next?
“After Nov. 5, is New Mexico Election Transparency Network’s work done? No, not by a long shot,” Veltri said.
After the Nov. 5 General Election, he said they may expand beyond New Mexico, aiming to go “coast to coast” and rebrand as the Election Transparency Network.
“We continue to look for ways to improve the processes, to right wrongs that may still exist and to make sure that we ultimately achieve our goal, that is secure and transparent elections,” Veltri said.