ALBUQUERQUE, NM (Legal Newsline) - The state of New Mexico faces suit for allegedly criminalizing a citizen request for voter data.
Holly Steinberg and Voter Reference Foundation (VRF) filed a federal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico in Albuquerque this week naming Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Attorney General Hector Balderas.
“Citizens like Holly Steinberg—could search public records of voting histories to determine who votes, where, and when,” wrote attorney Carter B. Harrison IV in the March 28 complaint. “Recently, Defendant Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver opined that this conduct was criminal, and referred the matter to Defendant Hector Balderas, New Mexico Attorney General.”
VRF, a non-partisan, non-profit based in Ohio, files requests with state officials to obtain data showing who has voted in recent elections, and then makes that data available to the public on its website.
“We are not going to be deterred by partisan election officials who believe the election records taxpayers pay for are their personal possessions. The public has a right to see them and if they try to block us, we will assert that right in court,” said Doug Truax, founder and president of Restoration Action, which created VRF as a subsidiary.
At the core of the lawsuit are use restrictions under N.M. Stat. § 1-4-5.5-5.6, which controls the use of voter data and for which unlawful use of voter data can be criminally prosecuted.
“The Use Restrictions effectively muzzle Plaintiffs’ transparency and voter outreach efforts and, in doing so, violate Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights,” Harrison wrote.
Use of voter data is allowed for an unspecified candidate or ballot measure campaign for election purposes and disallowed for the government itself but not for a private person for the purpose of publishing, reviewing, and engaging in speech regarding the government operation of elections, according to the complaint.
“Voter data is made public precisely to promote election transparency, integrity, and participation,” Harrison wrote. “It is not a resource that can be selectively released only to those groups whose political views the Secretary deems ‘not nefarious,’ and New Mexico’s statutes should not be used to ensnare and selectively punish those whose election and governmental uses do not meet whatever unwritten criteria the Secretary and law enforcement apply to deem data usage 'lawful.'"
Oliver was quoted in a way that allegedly falsely characterize VRF’s publication of the voter rolls as illegal in a March 7 ProPublica article titled, ‘Billionaire-Backed Group Enlists Trump-Supporting Citizens to Hunt for Voter Fraud Using Discredited Techniques.'
"The Secretary willingly lent her voice to an article by ProPublica, an ideologically left-wing group that has mounted a campaign against VRF," the complaint states. "ProPublica argues that VRF is dangerous because it allows citizens to access public data and thereby, allegedly, contribute to an 'echo chamber' of concern regarding election participation and integrity. Rather than simply contacting VRF to understand its mission and raise her concerns, the Secretary simply accepted ProPublica’s politically charged attacks as true and made a public criminal referral.”