Maggie Toulouse Oliver

Maggie Toulouse Oliver explodes over Trump ‘Big Lie’ statement, claims he’s targeting her

7 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

In a Sunday statement, President Donald Trump wrote, “I am willing to challenge the heads of the various papers or even far-left politicians, who have perpetuated the Real Big Lie, which is voter irregularities and fraud on a massive and determinative scale”

The 45th President added, “While I am willing to do it, they will never agree because they cannot argue that facts in states including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, and others such as New Mexico, where the Democrat Secretary of State changed the voting laws without legislative approval just prior to the election, making it virtually impossible for the Republican presidential candidate to win.” 

The 2020 election, which allegedly had massive fraud, including in New Mexico under the watch of Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, with the lack of purging voter rolls, the failure to implement an identification card to vote, ballot harvesting running rampant, and dark money leftist ally groups working overtime to perpetuate the “Big Lie” that voter fraud in the state does not exist. 

President Trump’s recent statements targeting Toulouse Oliver have resulted in her freaking out via a fundraising email to her donors, claiming “Trump zeroes in on Maggie.” 

The desperate ploy claims President Trump’s statement “is a lie,” bashing him as a “bully.” She also erroneously claimed he is “going after Maggie and our voting rights.”

“We must protect our democracy by standing up to bullies like him. Grassroots donors like you are the lifeblood of our campaign. With our fundraising blackout rapidly approaching, and Trump just getting started on spouting his lies and bullying Maggie, we need to raise as much money as possible,” the email wrote, subsequently asking for campaign funds. 

It is unclear why the Toulouse Oliver campaign is claiming “voting rights” are being targeted, as the 45th President zeroed in on fraudulent activity permitted by the Secretary of State, not the right to vote. 

Toulouse Oliver faces off against the only declared Republican candidate, conservative activist Audrey Trujillo of Corrales.

Maggie Toulouse Oliver explodes over Trump ‘Big Lie’ statement, claims he’s targeting her Read More »

Sec. of State to hold hearing on stripping mail-in ballot verification protections, opening door to fraud

2 Comments / Action Alert, New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Thursday, the Secretary of State’s Office will hold a hearing at the Roundhouse on proposed election rule changes to 1.10.15 NMAC regarding voting administration and mail-in ballot verification processes and 1.10.19 NMAC, a “new Secured Containers Rule.” 

These changes would directly impact the security of elections in New Mexico, especially with the proposed rule, written to take effect on August 24, 2021, which would flatly strip out section 1.10.15.8, which gives requirements for ballot verification with the last four digits of a social security number, signature matching, and notifications sent to voters of their ballots being rejected, giving the voter the opportunity to “cure” their ballot at their local city clerk’s office. 

Some of the portions proposed to be stricken by Secretary Maggie Toulouse Oliver  include:

A. Upon receipt of a mailed ballot, the county clerk shall remove the privacy flap to verify that the voter signed the official mailing envelope and to confirm that the last four digits of the social security number provided by the voter matches the information on the voter’s certificate of registration. 

B. If either the voter’s signature is missing or the last four digits of the voter’s social security number are not provided or do not match, the county clerk shall reject the mailed ballot and make the appropriate notation in the absentee ballot register and shall transfer the ballot to the special deputy for mailed ballots for delivery to the absent voter election board. Mailed ballots that are rejected must be secured and kept separate from the accepted mailed ballots.

C. If the mailed ballot is rejected, the county clerk shall within one working day send the voter a notice of rejection, in the voter’s preferred language, along with information regarding how the voter may cure the reason for the rejection.

In the 1.10.19 NMAC rule change, Toulouse Oliver  proposes the institution of “ballot drop box[es],” which would further weaken New Mexico election regulations by forcing New Mexico’s county clerks, unless granted a waiver, to install “a secured container to return official mailing envelopes” based on “a voting population-based formula determined by the secretary of state.”

Although the rule claims to be “secure” with the addition of “video recordings” at the drop-off locations, it would be unclear who is dropping off what ballot, opening up the process to voter fraud through ballot harvesting (taking other peoples’ ballots to the drop-off location for them, which could be altered or otherwise tampered with). Poll challengers tell the Piñon Post that at least in Bernalillo and Sandoval Counties during the 2020 election, the rule adding video recordings was in place, however, no precincts that they witnessed adhered to the video surveillance mandate.

With the Secretary of State’s proposed striking of  1.10.15.8 NMCA ensuring verification of ballots for signatures and matching social security numbers, the addition of the ballot drop boxes would give free rein for bad actors to defraud New Mexico elections through ballot harvesting and the submission of illegal mail-in ballots.

New Mexicans are encouraged to attend the meeting and speak up against the rule change, which would make New Mexico’s elections even more susceptible to fraud with the lack of ballot verification and the addition of ballot drop boxes, leaving New Mexicans’ votes vulnerable.

Ballot harvesting is already happening in New Mexico, with even New Mexico’s newest member of the state House of Representatives, Pamelya Herndon, admitting to harvesting ballots from senior citizens.

Meeting details are below: 

A public hearing will be held on Thursday July 22, from 9:00 am to 11:00 pm, at the State Capitol Building located at 490 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501 in Room 322.  Every effort will be made to ensure that this hearing will be live streamed on the Office’s website.  The public hearing allows members of the public an opportunity to submit data, testimony, and arguments in person on the proposed rule changes detailed below.  All comments will be recorded by a court reporter.

Before the public hearing, written comments may be sent to Kari Fresquez, Director of Legislative and Executive Affairs, via email at kari.fresquez@state.nm.us, fax (505) 827-8403, or by regular mail at Attn: Kari Fresquez – proposed rule, The Office of the New Mexico Secretary of State, 325 Don Gaspar, Suite 300, Santa Fe, NM 87501. The deadline to receive written comment is 9:00 am on July 22, 2021.  All written public comments will be posted on the website throughout the written comment period at: www.sos.state.nm.us.

[READ NEXT: Democrats just deny the existence of fraud, and poof it’s gone (in their minds)]

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NM Secretary of State clears MLG for misusing $6K in campaign cash on cosmetics

7 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Tuesday, the Secretary of State’s office cleared Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on an ethics complaint regarding her use of campaign dollars for hair and makeup expenses through her daughter, Erin Grisham.

Despite state law and the Secretary of State’s own guidelines explicitly forbidding candidates from using campaign funds for cosmetic expenditures, the Secretary of State’s office appeared to reverse its prior guidelines, giving the all-clear to state candidates to use donors’ funds for beauty needs if they are related to the campaign. 

The letter reads as follows:

Note: (CRA is the complaint and NMFM is New Mexicans for Michelle, the Governor’s campaign committee).

The crux of the CRA allegation is that “The governor’s personal use of campaign funds for hair and makeup through her daughter is a violation of New Mexico state law, as hair and makeup are not appropriate uses of campaign dollars, as set forth by state statute and reaffirmed by the Secretary of State in the official 2020 Campaign Finance Reporting Guide.”

Based on the Response, all the alleged expenditures to Beauty by Erin were for “campaign related photo shoots, campaign commercials, State of the State speeches and Democratic National Convention media and video appearances, some of which were nationally televised.” Response, pg. 2. The Response further stated that these expenses would not have existed but for the candidacy of the Governor. Id.

Based on the Response and analysis of the relevant statutory framework our office is unable to conclude that the expenditures to Beauty by Erin by NMFM are violations of the CRA or NMAC, for they are reasonably attributable to the candidate’s campaign and not an expense that would have existed but for the Governor’s candidacy. We would also additionally note that the example in our Guide in no way precludes a candidate from making an expenditure on hair, makeup and nails. The key analysis is whether the expenditure is reasonably attributable to the candidate’s campaign, not solely what the expense is.”

However, through mentioning that the use of these campaign funds went toward the governor preparing for her State of the State speeches (which are an official act mandated by New Mexico state statute, not a campaign event), it would appear that the office is even clearing politicians to use campaign funds for official acts, such as legislators getting their hair and makeup done during the Legislative Session.

Piñon Post editor John Block, who filed the complaint, released the following statement: 

“Gov. Lujan Grisham’s ability to duck responsibility despite glaring evidence of shameless public corruption proves once again that New Mexico’s political system is rotted to its very core. Whether it be paying $62,500 in hush money to sexual accusers for crotch-grabbing incidents or delving out over $6,000 to her daughter for hair and makeup, institutions New Mexicans are supposed to rely on refuse to hold the governor accountable. It seems only the voters (who Lujan Grisham mocks as ‘lizard people’) can bring long-awaited justice at the ballot box in 2022.”

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Trump Campaign files lawsuit in New Mexico regarding ballot drop boxes

3 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Monday, President Donald J. Trump filed a lawsuit in New Mexico asking a judge to stop electoral votes from being cast and counted. The lawsuit focused on “drop boxes” for the deposit of absentee ballots and alleged fraud that occurred. The suit claims Democrat Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver created an election that was not constitutional.

It made multiple allegations, including that “[c]ertain officials in New Mexico presented the pandemic as the justification for ignoring state laws regarding absentee and mail-in voting. The State of New Mexico flooded their citizenry with hundreds of thousands of ballot applications and ballots in derogation of statutory controls as to how they are lawfully received, evaluated, and counted. Whether well-intentioned or not, these unconstitutional acts had the same uniform effect — they made the 2020 election less secure in the state of New Mexico.

The drop boxes were funded and installed thanks to federal CARES Act money in an effort to “reduce numbers of voters congregating at voting locations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The suit reads as follows regarding drop-boxes:

The Secretary’s solution to this problem — which also enabled her to take advantage of federal funding earmarked for absentee-ballot drop-off boxes — was to create another ballot-return option called the “drop box.” The word “drop box” does not appear in the Election Code, and the only creature of statute that looks in any way like it is the “secured container” concept from § 1-6-9(E), but the Secretary took the position that drop boxes were not “secured containers.” Rather, the Secretary took the position that drop boxes were simply an embodiment of the longstanding rule that an absentee-ballot “official mailing envelope may be returned in person to . . . an alternate voting location, mobile alternate voting location or election day voting location.” NMSA 1978, § 1-6-9(D). In short, her position is that there is no difference between the longstanding practice of a voter turning in his or her ballot “in person” and a voter turning in to a drop box placed outside the polling place.

[…]

This procedure was simply not followed with regard to what the Trump Campaign believes was the majority of drop boxes in New Mexico, allowing individuals to drop off multiple ballots — meaning that, by definition, they were not the voter on all of them — without speaking to a person at all.

The suit concludes:

The Court should order a temporary restraining order to the Defendant Secretary and the Defendant Electors of the state of New Mexico to delay disposition of certificates of votes for President and Vice President that would ordinarily be performed in accordance with 3 U.S.C. 11, that are made and signed, or will be made and signed, in accordance with 3 U.S.C. 9. until further order of this Court and then issue a preliminary injunction or stay against their doing so until the conclusion of this case on the merits. Alternatively, the Court should reach the merits, vacate the Defendant Electors’ certifications from the unconstitutional 2020 election results, and remand to the state of New Mexico legislature pursuant to 3 U.S.C. § 2 to appoint electors.

The Republican Party previously won a legal victory regarding drop boxes before the 2020 election, with a judge agreeing with the Party that three counties “had failed to provide mandated security measures at their absentee ballot drop box locations.” Toulouse Oliver later agreed to reissue guidelines to all counties regarding dropbox supervision and procedures. 

“The President’s lawsuit is valid and necessary,” said Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce. “We have questioned these drop boxes and the entire election process where the Secretary of State seems to make up her own rules and allows violations to happen in this past election. To allow these actions to happen stains our election integrity and our very democracy.”

Alex Curtas in the Secretary of State’s office brushed off the new Trump suit, telling the Las Cruces Sun-News that “This lawsuit appears to be yet another attempt by the outgoing Trump Administration to silence the voices of lawful voters throughout the country.” Previously on Monday, New Mexico’s five electors cast their ballots for vice-president and president.

Trump Campaign files lawsuit in New Mexico regarding ballot drop boxes Read More »

NM Secretary of State claims rigging an election is ‘next to impossible’

9 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Thursday, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver wrote on Twitter a strange statement defending her office’s work to ensure the integrity of election results. She claimed that it was “next to impossible” to “rig” an election and that there were multiple “safeguards” to endure elections were free and fair.

She wrote, “The layers of transparency, accountability & complexity involved in the election process make the act of “rigging” an election next to impossible. Every ballot in #NM is accounted for & every step of the process is layered w safeguards to ensure accuracy.” 

The photograph included in the tweet claims that each election has a county canvass, a canvas by the Secretary of State’s office, an independent post-election audit, and a review by the State Canvassing Board, which Toulouse Oliver notes include Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Democrat Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Michale E. Vigil, and the Canvassing Board. 

However, her office’s so-called “layers of transparency” don’t appear to add up, given that in 2018, there were thousands of irregularities in the Second Congressional District race when there was an independent audit done, which her state-run audit did not find. 

According to the report conducted after the election, “These anomalies are not simply organic. Reviewing the historical returns in the CD2 district, over the last five election cycles, the same degrees of variation between absentee votes and EV/ED votes do not exist in CD2 in any cycle to the degree found in the 2018 race.” 

Other major anomalies occurred, but the most malevolent of them is the 25% of absentee voters who requested ballots in Doña Ana County and never returned them — a number that rarely reaches 5%. According to the report:

“it is probably the strongest purely statistical red flag present in this whole election  — of the possibility that someone was submitting absentee ballot applications for Democrats. There is also a significantly high number of duplicate applications — where one voter supposedly submitted more than one absentee ballot application or submitted an absentee application after the absentee ballot had been received, or the voter had voted in person. In many of these cases the signature on the duplicate applications do not match each other.”

No information on these eye-opening irregularities came out in 2018 from the Secretary of State’s office, the state Canvassing Board, or any other supposed group that reviewed the election results, which was only found in an independent candidate-funded audit.

However, earlier in the day, the Secretary of State claimed that “conspiracy theories” needed to be addressed, where she claimed Dominion Voting Systems do not glitch and that such assertions are“categorically false.” She also claimed any issues with Sharpie pens and voting are false.

“The statements being made about Dominion Voting Systems are categorically false. No votes were changed or ‘glitched.’ There’s no secret CIA program for vote fraud. There are no issues with Sharpie pens being used to mark ballots,” she said.

NM Secretary of State claims rigging an election is ‘next to impossible’ Read More »

Don’t listen to the partisan fear-mongering: voting in-person is safe

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In recent weeks, Democrats and the left-wing media have attempted to cast doubt on the safety of voting in-person, with story headlines reading things like “Voting fears in New Mexico amplified amid 2020 tensions.” 

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has been fear-mongering about safety concerns regarding in-person voting, uring “every voter in New Mexico to request an absentee ballot and vote safely by mail during the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

However, June’s primary election went forth without any health concerns or voting locations closed down due to a COVID-19 outbreak. 

Despite the Governor attempting to stigmatize in-person voting, it is the safest way to cast one’s ballot–both in terms of one’s health and one’s security that their vote will be counted. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the words of Democrats across the state who affirm how safe voting is:

Democrat Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover, who oversees the most populous county in New Mexico, said in-person voting is “probably one of the safest places to be in town.” 

Democrat Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver acknowledged the safety of in-person voting. She said, “in-person voting is safe and we’ll be safe here” in all 33 counties of the state. Toulouse previously fought hard at the New Mexico Supreme Court, although unsuccessfully, to hold an all-mail-in election. Democrats claimed it was an “assault on Democracy” not to eliminate in-person voting. 

Although absentee voting is an option, it is not guaranteed, as voting in-person is, that one’s ballot will not be thrown out or discarded. According to a report by NBC News, there is a higher chance that absentee ballots made by people of color will have their mail-in ballots thrown away or disqualified.

University of Florida professor Daniel A. Smith said: 

Hispanic and Black voters were more than twice as likely to have their ballot rejected as white voters in Florida’s 2018 general election. In May, he co-published a review of Georgia’s 2018 midterm election data that found a similar pattern of rejection for voters of color.

When it comes to mail voting, names and addresses can suggest race and create opportunities for implicit bias or added scrutiny. In Georgia, Democratic officials said that election officials can access a voter’s race when they’re checking for a signature match. The state party successfully sued to require multiple poll workers to sign off on a signature mismatch, which they hope will reduce bias.

NBC News writes:

The most common reason ballots are rejected is that they arrive late. Mail service is less reliable in lower-income communities, and many Native American reservations do not have home delivery addresses used for mail voting. The pandemic has stressed mail service across the board, and amid the fiscal crisis, the U.S. Postal Service has ordered recent changes that are expected to slow the mail service.

Based on the available evidence, voting in-person is not only the safest way for voters to cast their votes, it is the preferred method to ensure every voter’s ballot is counted. It is recommended that if a voter wishes to order an absentee ballot, they return their ballot to the County Clerk’s office by mail at least two full weeks before the November 3 election, otherwise, they should hand-deliver their ballot to the County Clerk’s office in their respective counties.

New Mexico’s highest-ranking election chief Maggie Toulouse Oliver herself acknowledges the safety of in-person voting, and so should voters across New Mexico. Vote in-person if possible. More voting information can be found at NMForAll.com.

Don’t listen to the partisan fear-mongering: voting in-person is safe Read More »

Toulouse Oliver uses COVID-19 spread to help Guv force through election changes in special session

6 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

According to an email sent by New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver to county clerks, she is relying on an expected spread of COVID-19 to push through partisan election changes in the upcoming special session of the Legislature starting on June 18th. 

In the email obtained by the New Mexico House Republicans, Toulouse Oliver writes, “I (and others) have been working closely with the Governor and her staff to ensure that she will place election matters on the call for the special session.”

“I know we all felt hamstrung by the current Election Code during the Primary and, given those limitations (and the likely budgetary implications) heading into the fall when we may have a resurgence of the virus, I think she understands that we as election administrators need more flexibility to manage the election effectively this fall,” continued Toulouse Oliver.

Toulouse Oliver also said the bill she is working with Democrat Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto on to push for election changes, will closely reflect an April letter signed by her and multiple county clerks urging for an all mail-in primary election, with the option for voters to hand-deliver their absentee ballots and the in-person voting options for those with physical disabilities, with COVID-19 as the reason.

According to the latest numbers, COVID-19 has been on a downward decline nationwide, with New Mexico’s cases increasing by over 50%.

The New Mexico House Republicans blasted Toulouse Oliver for utilizing the health pandemic to force through an all mail-in election, writing, “If you thought [New Mexico Democrats] would pass up an opportunity to hyper-politicize our budget instead of focusing solely on solving the economic crisis CREATED by the forced shutdown, YOU’D BE MISTAKEN.”

The New Mexico Supreme Court in a unanimous decision rejected Toulouse Oliver and Ivey-Soto’s partisan petition to have an all mail-in primary election, citing the lack of statutory law to allow such a measure. 

Now, during the Governor’s special session to fix her irresponsible budgeting in the 2020 Legislative Session, she and Ivey-Soto will likely claim changing the Election Code is a budgetary issue, hoping to sneak in all mail-in elections that way, with the hopes of a new COVID-19 resurgence in the Fall. 
Although legislators will be meeting for the special session in Santa Fe, the Capitol will be closed to the public, and no in-person testimony on the critical measures will be allowed. A bipartisan group of legislators is currently petitioning the New Mexico Supreme Court to allow in-person testimony.

Toulouse Oliver uses COVID-19 spread to help Guv force through election changes in special session Read More »

Dems cry ‘voter suppression’ after Dem-majority NM Supreme Court blocks all-mail election

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On Tuesday, the New Mexico Supreme Court dealt Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and the Democrat Party a crippling blow in their attempt to use the COVID-19 pandemic to push for an all mail-in ballot election, despite New Mexico’s ancient voter records.

The Court unanimously sided with the Republican Party of New Mexico, with Chief Justice Judith Nakamura saying, “The relief that is requested is specifically prohibited by New Mexico statute … which says that a mail ballot shall not be delivered by the county clerk to anyone other than the applicant for the ballot.”

The Court found a solution to the pandemic concerns with in-person voting by ruling that the state should send out absentee ballot applications to be filled out and sent back, which both followed current statute and curbs potential for widespread fraud. 

A deep-dive from the Public Interest Legal Foundation found countless instances of inconsistencies in the New Mexico voter rolls, with 3,168 registrants flagged with duplicate concerns, 1,681 dead residents, 1,519 voters aged over 100 years old, 64 of which are aged over 120, and 188 registered with a commercial address. — # of Registrations flagged for duplicate concerns: 3,168

The Republican Party of New Mexico hailed the Supreme Court’s decision, writing in a statement, “The court’s refusal to rewrite New Mexico election law—to allow the unsolicited mailing of live ballots as part of an all vote-by-mail (VBM) election–shows the proper respect for the importance of election integrity, even in the face of the challenges posed by COVID-19.”

The hard-left dark money Democrat Party-linked 501c4 nonprofit “ProgressNow NM” bemoaned the Court’s decision to follow written law, claiming “this is a rough day for democracy in New Mexico,” despite the ability of citizens to vote legally with absentee ballot applications.

Secretary of State Toulouse Oliver sent out a statement begrudgingly accepting the decision, saying, “My office will comply with the court’s order and mail absentee ballot applications to all voters registered with a major political party. That’s why it’s important that eligible voters register to vote or update their voter registrations by May 5.”

The Democrat Party of New Mexico sent out a statement once again using the COVID-19 crisis as a pelting board to launch attacks at the Republican Party. The statement claimed the NM GOP is attempting to “suppress the vote,” despite the Party asking for the Court to rule in the bounds of current law. 
The New Mexico Supreme Court is made up of four Democrats and one Republican.

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