A federal judge has ruled that New Mexico officials violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by refusing to provide voter data to a conservative-backed group named Voter Reference Foundation.
In a 329-page ruling on March 29, Albuquerque-based U.S. District Judge James Browning said the New Mexico secretary of state’s office and the state’s attorney general had violated the Public Inspection Provision by denying the group’s request for voter data.
The court documents named New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Attorney General Raul Torrez as the defendants.
The ruling states that the Voter Reference Foundation created a “searchable” database online that includes voters’ names, dates of birth, registration addresses, registration dates, party affiliations, registration statuses, precincts, and voting participation histories.
The group said that voter information is required to “provide public access to official government data pertaining to elections, including voter registration rolls,” according to the court’s ruling.
New Mexico election law bans the publication of voter registration data. It restricts the use of the data for political campaigning and noncommercial government purposes.
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