This opinion piece was written by New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and appeared in the ABQ Journal on October 23, 2024

There are less than two weeks until the General Election and New Mexico’s election officials are hard at work helping voters with early voting and same-day voter registration, receiving ballots by mail, and completing final preparations for Election Day. 

Instead of focusing on supporting their county clerks, encouraging participation, and providing accurate information to voters, however, some New Mexico elected officials have instead begun spreading misinformation about our elections. 

There are many narratives being pushed by election deniers since 2020 to create distrust about our election systems in an effort to lay the groundwork for legal challenges to the outcome should Trump lose again in 2024. One of the loudest is the lie that non-citizens vote in large numbers in U.S. elections (and are somehow being used to solely sway elections for Democrats). 

This lie has been around for years – former NM Secretary of State Dianna Duran pushed it in 2011 without any evidence – but it has popped up again all around the country in 2024, following a national playbook that has trickled down into the states.

I saw this national narrative on display last September when I testified in front of a congressional committee in Washington D.C. My colleagues and I were peppered with questions about non-citizen voting in U.S. elections even though the data shows it rarely happens. The conservative Heritage Foundation produced a study, for instance, that found only 24 instances of noncitizens voting nationwide over a twenty-year period between 2003 and 2023. 

Non-citizens do not vote in any systematic way in New Mexico or in the nation.

But now that same false narrative about non-citizen voting has landed in New Mexico. A recent op-ed by Rep. Jim Townsend and other state Republican elected officials that ran in the ABQ Journal last Sunday (“SOS up to election trickery again encouraging voter fraud by noncitizens”) makes the outlandish claim that my Office is encouraging illegal voting in New Mexico elections. Their proof? A recent outreach mailer we sent to potentially eligible voters that gives information about the requirements for registering and voting. We have sent this mailer out before every election since 2016 and make clear in the mailer that you must meet all eligibility requirements to register, including being a U.S. citizen. 

These outreach mailers are an important tool we use to provide information to New Mexicans about their possible registration status and their ability to participate in our elections. The information my Office provides in the mailer and on our website is careful to indicate that recipients of these mailers may be able to register, but that registering as a non-citizen is illegal.

Don’t be fooled by the lies. It is not a choice between security and accessibility when it comes to our elections. We provide secure and accessible elections in New Mexico and were recently recognized as having the best elections in the nation by the prestigious MIT Elections Performance Index. We use 100% paper ballots in New Mexico; our voting machines are never connected to the internet; mandatory audits are performed after every election; and our voter rolls are continually updated to ensure accuracy.

I encourage readers to seek out trusted sources of election information, like your county clerk or at the Secretary of State’s Office, to make sure you’re prepared to make your voice heard. Our Rumor vs. Reality page fact checks the most common misinformation narratives, so be sure to get the facts there if you encounter misinformation ahead of the November 5th General Election.