Maggie Toulouse Oliver

Early voting in New Mexico’s primary election has begun, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, election officials are urging anyone who can vote to stay away from the polls and use absentee ballots. Registered voters can request an absentee ballot at NMvote.org through May 28, and in order to be counted it has to reach the county clerk’s office by 7pm on June 2.

Episode 49 is all about the elections that are still coming up and the 2020 census. Advocates tell us that New Mexico is hard to count because it's big, area-wise, and because plenty of communities are intentionally discouraged from filling it out through fear tactics. The census determines how much federal funding comes to the state for all kinds of programs over the next 10 years, and it's how voting districts are determined. If brown and black communities around the U.S. don't participate in the census, advocates tell us, their political power is diluted. 

In episode 43, we talk about how not everybody's at home waiting out the pandemic. We hear from people around the state who are still employed and in public—but who don't make a lot of money—about their working conditions, their support from their employers and their fears about the virus.

4/20 12p: This week in women's headline news, the first female astronaut candidate in the U.S. died. We have a remembrance.Also in this week's news: Protests erupt in Bangladesh over the death of a woman murdered after she refused to drop sexual harassment charges against her Islamic school prinicpal; police in Northern Ireland arrest two teens in the death of journalist Lyra McKee; the trial of female activists in Saudi Arabia postponed; Ivanka Trump visits Ivory Coast as part of USAID $2M pledge to help women in cocoa industry; women will be included in Taliban delegation during peace talks for the first time; Congressional hearing set for April 30 on Equal Rights Amendment, the first such hearing in in 36 years; New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver to pursue Senate seat; lawsuit against New Mexico Corrections says officers sexually abuse inmate.

Eligible New Mexicans would be automatically registered to vote at Department of Motor Vehicles offices under a bill that lawmakers advanced Monday. 

Bernalillo County Clerk Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver is running become New Mexico’s next Secretary of State.

Oliver sat down for a conversation with Gwyneth Doland, as part of KUNM’s special election overage with New Mexico PBS.  Her Republican opponent, state lawmaker Nora Espinoza declined multiple interview requests.

Amber Royster is a sixth-generation New Mexican and Navy veteran who served in the Iraq War and was deployed twice overseas. She said Bernalillo County’s advisory mental health ballot question and the secretary of state’s race are her main interests this year.

She’s a registered Green Party member, and said she generally prefers to vote on issues instead of candidates. She’s voting for Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver for secretary of state because that office can allow direct issues-based questions onto the polls.