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Candidates for NM Secretary of State disagree on election integrity

Left: New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver pauses for a second during her speech on Friday, June 24, 2022, at a rally for abortion rights at Tiguex Park in protest of the Supreme Court decision that ended federal abortion rights protections. (Photo by Shelby Wyatt for Source NM) Right: Republican challenger running for Secretary of State Audrey Trujillo speaks before the All Pueblo Council of Governors in mid-October. (Photo by Gino Gutierrez for Source NM)
Left: New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver pauses for a second during her speech on Friday, June 24, 2022, at a rally for abortion rights at Tiguex Park in protest of the Supreme Court decision that ended federal abortion rights protections. (Photo by Shelby Wyatt for Source NM) Right: Republican challenger running for Secretary of State Audrey Trujillo speaks before the All Pueblo Council of Governors in mid-October. (Photo by Gino Gutierrez for Source NM)

This year New Mexicans are deciding who should be the next chief elections officer for the state.

The incumbent Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, is a Democrat who has held the position since 2016.

She’s running against Republican Audrey Trujillo and Libertarian Mayna Myers.

The Albuquerque Journal reports Toulouse Oliver’s top priorities are voter accessibility, campaign finance transparency, and combatting election disinformation. Earlier this year her office launched a website to fact check false information.

“Election lies and disinformation are everywhere,” she said in a campaign video. “That’s why, as secretary of state, I put accurate and accessible voting information online.”

The ad suggests her main challenger — Trujillo — is spreading false claims that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Trujillo has echoed this on various platforms, like on former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s podcast, according to Source New Mexico.

She uses this lens to call for “fair” elections, that “every legal vote will be counted” and, on her website, she’s pushing to limit absentee voting to people with disabilities, those in the military, the elderly and voters who are temporarily out of the state.

“We take care of what’s happening in the Secretary of State Office, and we make sure we have fair elections, not selections,” said Trujillo. “Things are going to change, because the will of the people is what we need to protect.”

So far Trujillo has raised $82,000 compared to about $583,000 raised by Toulouse Oliver, according to the Secretary of State’s office. That includes cash and in-kind contributions. Whoever wins would be responsible for maintaining voter registration lists, testing voting machines and certifying precinct boundaries, as well as reporting campaign finances and regulating lobbyists.

If the governor cannot perform their role, the secretary is third in line to head the state after the lieutenant governor.

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