By admin 
Election mailers, TV ads and new online databases are putting a spotlight on personal, public voter roll information.
Election mailers, TV ads and new online databases are putting a spotlight on personal, public voter roll information.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver is in a legal battle to try to limit where public voter data is published.
“I strongly disagree that this is an appropriate use of voter data,” Toulouse Oliver said.
VoteRef.com, funded by a former Trump campaign officialaims to publish voter roll information for all 50 states online. The website states that it “aims to encourage greater voter participation in all fifty states.”
“We suspected that their intention was to put that public voter data on the Internet, to encourage people to knock on doors and see if people actually live there,” Toulouse Oliver said. “Creating a kind of vigilante, voting, voter watchers or voter checkers.”
Voter list information includes names, addresses, whether or not someone voted and how, and party affiliations.
Who someone voted for, full dates of birth and social security numbers are never published.
A federal judge sided with VoteRef.com, allowing them to publish New Mexicans’ voter roll data online – Toulouse Oliver is appealing.
However, not every registered voter’s address is published.
“I have taken advantage of a recent law that, as an elected official, allows me to make my voter address private,” Toulouse Oliver said.
State lawmakers made it possible to protect the publication of their addresses afterward Solomon Peña, a failed Republican candidate, was arrested for orchestrating shootings at the homes of elected Democrats.
“It’s one thing to know it’s public information,” Toulouse Oliver said of the voter roll data. “It’s something else to know that your data is just on the internet. No one should be responsible for asking for that information.”
While Republican operatives published this data online, Democratic operatives are using this data to pressure people to vote.
Voter Participation Center mailers list people’s addresses, and it shows residents’ voting history and their neighbors’ voting history with the message: “We will review this data after the election to determine whether or not you voted with your neighbors.”
The attorney general of one state sent a cease and desist order and said the mailers crossed the line.
A spokesperson for New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said they are investigating two complaints related to mailings and are being reviewed by election protection attorneys.