{"id":39264,"date":"2022-07-25T21:18:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T03:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-judge-oks-online-publication-of-new-mexico-voter-records\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T03:18:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T03:18:37","slug":"u-s-judge-oks-online-publication-of-new-mexico-voter-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-judge-oks-online-publication-of-new-mexico-voter-records\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. judge OKs online publication of New Mexico voter records"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A voter, left, provides a signature to receive a ballot at a makeshift polling station inside a parking garage in Santa Fe, N.M., on May 5, 2020. (Morgan Lee\/Associated Press file)<\/span>Morgan Lee<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 A conservative-backed initiative to publish voter registration records from across the country online for public consumption can move forward over the objections of New Mexico election regulators, a federal judge has ordered in a preliminary opinion.<\/p>\n

Albuquerque-based U.S. District Court Judge James Browning issued an order last Friday preventing New Mexico state prosecutors from pursuing allegations of possible election code violations against the creators of VoteRef.com.<\/p>\n

The VoteRef.com website provides searchable access to voter registration records by name and street addresses, often indicating when people voted in past elections.<\/p>\n

The online records do not say for which candidates the people voted or how they voted on initiatives. Party affiliation is listed for voters in some states but not all.<\/p>\n

The Voter Reference Foundation that created the website advocates for voting accountability by making voter information more accessible to the public.<\/p>\n

After the ruling, the foundation said it would post New Mexico voter rolls online starting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The decision doesn\u2019t apply to New Mexico voters enrolled in a confidential address program aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence and stalking.<\/p>\n

New Mexico election regulators contend that the effort violates state restrictions on the purchase and dissemination of voter registration records \u2013 and is likely to discourage voter participation because people may opt out if they know that some of their voting information is being made public.<\/p>\n

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, in March referred the matter the attorney general\u2019s office for possible prosecution of the Voter Reference Foundation, which published New Mexico registration records online at the time after obtaining them through an out-of-state business. State law restricts the use of voter registration information to political campaigning and election- or government-related activities.<\/p>\n

\"New
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver speaks on Capitol Hill on July 24, 2018, in Washington. (Susan Walsh\/Associated Press file)<\/span>Susan Walsh<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The foundation \u2013 backed by former GOP Senate candidate Doug Truax of Illinois \u2013 took its New Mexico records offline in response and sued the state in federal court, alleging violations of due process and free speech guarantees.<\/p>\n

The judge’s order blocks prosecution while the case advances toward trial and said that the Voter Reference Foundation is likely to prevail in its claim as the victim of viewpoint discrimination by election regulators. Browning said New Mexico state law \u201cdoes not prohibit Voter Reference \u2013 or any organization \u2013 from posting voter data online.\u201d<\/p>\n

The creators of VoteRef.com are \u201csubstantially likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Secretary of State\u2019s referral of Voter Reference to the Attorney General for criminal prosecution and her public statements about the referral are an unconstitutional prior restraint on protected speech,\u201d Browning said.<\/p>\n

Truax, founder of the Restoration of America organization that funds VoteRef.com, said his group \u201cwon\u2019t be intimidated by politicians who, for some reason, don\u2019t want to give the people of their state easy access to election records they pay for.\u201d He is an advocate for limiting voting access largely to in-person voting on Election Day with photo ID requirements and no same-day registration.<\/p>\n

VoteRef.com already publishes voter registration information online from at least 28 states and Washington D.C.<\/p>\n

Toulouse Oliver spokesman Alex Curtas called the judge’s opinion a \u201cblow to protecting the privacy rights of every New Mexican voter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fear now is that voters will be less likely to participate in our elections because their voting information \u2013 name, residential address, party affiliation, voting history, and year of birth -\u2013 will be made easily available online for anyone to obtain and potentially manipulate,\u201d Curtas said.<\/p>\n

Some New Mexico neighborhoods this year have been the focus of door-to-door canvassing by volunteers for a group called New Mexico Audit Force that promotes unproven conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

The door knocking \u2013 ostensibly to verify individual voter registrations at peoples’ homes \u2013 has generated voter intimidation concerns and counterclaims of threats against canvassers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A voter, left, provides a signature to receive a ballot at a makeshift polling station inside a parking garage in Santa Fe, N.M., on May 5, 2020. (Morgan Lee\/Associated Press file)Morgan Lee SANTA FE \u2013 A conservative-backed initiative to publish voter registration records from across the country online for public consumption can move forward over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39264"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}