Gov. Lujan Grisham Signs SB 264, Barring Federal Troops or Armed Agents From New Mexico Polling Places

New Mexico Senate Bill 264 passed the Senate 26-16 on February 15, 2026, and the House 41-26 on February 17, 2026. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed it into law March 9, 2026 — confirmed directly from the official bill-status page’s action summary, “SGND BY GOV (Mar. 9) Ch. 58” — making it Chapter 58, Laws of 2026. The final enrolled text (fetched directly from nmlegis.gov) matches the Senate Rules Committee Substitute verbatim; Section 3 adds a new Election Code section, “INTERFERENCE WITH ELECTIONS,” reading in operative part:

“A person acting under color of law or otherwise shall not: (1) order, bring or keep a troop or armed person or persons in the civil, military or naval service of the United States to any location used as a polling place, including parking areas for the polling location, or within fifty feet of a monitored secured container as used in Subsection E of Section 1-6-9 NMSA 1978, beginning twenty-eight days before an election through election day, unless such force is necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States; … or (4) interfere in any manner with the conduct of the election or the secretary of state, a county clerk, a municipal clerk or an employee or agent of the secretary of state, an employee or agent of a county clerk, an employee or agent of a municipal clerk or a member of an election board, voter, challenger or watcher in the discharge of the person’s duties pursuant to the Election Code.”

The statute reaches federal agents by reusing the “civil, military or naval service of the United States” formula from the federal troops-at-polls statute it is modeled on, 18 U.S.C. §592, rather than naming any federal agency outright; a companion new section, §1-1-29 NMSA 1978, defines “under color of law” as acting under the authority of a statute, ordinance, regulation, or order of “the United States or this state.” Unlike California’s 100-foot and Connecticut’s 250-foot buffers, SB 264 imposes no numeric distance around the polling place or its parking areas — presence there is flatly barred — while a separate 50-foot buffer applies around a secured ballot drop box. The prohibited window runs 28 days before an election through election day, longer than the election-day-only windows in California, Connecticut, or Rhode Island. The sole carve-out is force “necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States,” echoing §592’s own exception verbatim. Enforcement is both criminal — a fourth-degree felony (Subsection B) — and civil: the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, a county clerk (for violations in their county), or a voter who experienced intimidation or was unable to vote due to obstruction may bring a civil action in district court (Subsection C).

New Mexico is one of four states with enacted 2026-cycle statutes directly barring armed or federal-agent presence at polling places, alongside California (2026-09-19–newsom-signs-sb884-protect-our-polls-act-arrest-restriction), Connecticut (2026-05-15–connecticut-public-act-26-42-sec57-250ft-federal-agent-buffer-polling-sites), and Rhode Island (2026-06-22–mckee-signs-h7434-bars-ice-200ft-rhode-island-polling-places).