SANTA FE - Democrats on Tuesday blocked another bill that would have required photo identification to vote.

The proposal, by Republican Rep. Cathrynn Brown of Carlsbad, would have mandated

government-issued photo ID to cast absentee ballots or to vote in person.

Members of the House Voters and Elections Committee tabled Brown's bill on a 7-5 vote. Every Democrat opposed the bill, and every Republican supported it.

With the decision, voter ID could be dead as an issue until the 2013 legislative session. Only budget matters are likely to be considered by legislators next year.

Rep. James Madalena, D-Jemez Pueblo, said he opposed the concept of every bill requiring a photo ID to vote. He said these measures chip away at a basic right, as they make it harder for people who are older, poor and disabled to cast ballots.

House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, brought forth similar arguments.

In Navajo country, Lujan said, many people are without electricity. How can they be expected to make photocopies of a photo ID so they can mail it in with their ballot? he asked.

Republicans on the committee rarely spoke during the debate, all of them aware that they were outnumbered.

But Republican Secretary of State Dianna Duran, an advocate of photo ID to vote, told the committee the bill was a fraud-fighting measure. She said her office may have uncovered evidence of illegal voting in recent elections.

Duran said her staff had begun comparing voter rolls and driver's

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licenses that the state issued to foreign nationals. So far, she said, 37 cases had been flagged in which people who were not U.S. citizens apparently voted in New Mexico elections. She said the findings were preliminary and needed further investigation.

But the cases that Duran cited involved people with valid,

government-issued photo IDs.

New Mexico is one of three states that issue driver's licenses to applicants who do not have proof of immigration status. About 83,000 foreign nationals have New Mexico driver's licenses. Under Brown's bill, a driver's license would be an acceptable form of identification to vote.

Tuesday's decision marked the second time this session that the seven Democrats who control the Voters and Elections Committee blocked a voter ID bill.

The first measure was by Rep. Dianne Hamilton, R-Silver City. Hamilton's bill proposed only to require photo ID for in-person voters. In that case, committee members said it was unfair to require photo ID of those who go to the polls but create no similar standard for absentee voters.

Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at

msimonich@-tnmnp.com or (505) 820-6898. His blog is at

nmcapitolreport.com.

How they voted

•Those who voted to block HB 577, which would require photo identification to vote: Reps. Mary Helen Garcia, D-Las Cruces; Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe; James Madalena, D-Jemez Pueblo; Ken Martinez, D-Grants; Danice Picraux, D-Albuquerque; Debbie Rodella, D-Espanola; and Edward Sandoval, D-Albuquerque.

•Those who voted against blocking the bill: Reps. Nate Gentry, R-Albuquerque; Conrad James, R-Albuquerque; James Smith, R-Sandia Park; Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque; and Shirley Tyler, R-Lovington.