Commentary: SANTA FE – New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver issued the following statement today in response to President Donald Trump’s continued false allegations that at least three million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 General Election:
“President Trump’s allegations are simply not true. This office has been working aggressively to protect the integrity of our elections, while ensuring New Mexicans’ right to vote is not infringed. I am extremely concerned that President Trump is pushing these voter fraud lies to justify future efforts making it harder to vote. New Mexicans and the American people deserve better.”
In 2012, the Pew Charitable Trusts released a comprehensive plan to upgrade voter registration systems across the country. The New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office has been actively working to implement the three specific recommendations made in the plan:
- Compare registration lists with other data sources, such as motor vehicle and national change-of-address records, to broaden the base of information used to update and verify voter rolls.
- Implement proven techniques and security protocols that use those data sources to better track and identify inaccurate records that could be removed, as well as eligible citizens who could be registered.
- Minimize manual data entry by providing voters with opportunities to submit their information online, which in turn would reduce costs and errors.
As part of this work, in June 2016, New Mexico became a participating State in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a sophisticated interstate data exchange, administered by the states, that harnesses cutting-edge technology to clean voter lists and streamline the process by which new voters register. This system alerts election officials to voters whose information might be out of date or who may be eligible but not registered. New Mexico is one of twenty states plus the District of Columbia currently participating in ERIC, which covers approximately seventy-six million voters.
A recent report by the Electoral Integrity Project ranks New Mexico’s electoral system #5 on its Perceptions of Electoral Integrity index. Two weeks ago, Secretary of State Toulouse Oliver announced the successful audit of New Mexico’s electronic voting tabulation systems used in the 2016 general election. The full audit report and analysis can be found on the New Mexico Secretary of State’s website.
If a New Mexicans would like to register to vote, or update their registration, they can visit the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Online Voter Registration website.