{"id":358679,"date":"2025-12-19T20:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/358679\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T20:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:24:08","slug":"voting-rights-groups-new-mexico-voters-file-motion-to-protect-voters-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/358679\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting Rights Groups, New Mexico Voters File Motion to Protect Voters\u2019 Privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA FE, NM \u2014 Today, Common Cause and two New Mexico voters joined the ACLU National Voting Rights Project and the ACLU of New Mexico in filing a motion to intervene<\/a> in United States of America v. Toulouse Oliver to prevent the Department of Justice (DOJ) from obtaining New Mexico voters\u2019 personal data.<\/p>\n

In July, the DOJ asked New Mexico to turn over voters\u2019 full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver\u2019s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers \u2014 highly sensitive data that is protected under state and federal law. New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver previously shared only publicly available data in response to the requests but declined to share more sensitive data protected under the law.<\/p>\n

The advocates and voters argue the DOJ\u2019s request threatens voter privacy and could enable voter disenfranchisement. They are represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and ACLU of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Other voters joining the case include a naturalized citizen from Colombia who moved to the United States to pursue higher education and a formerly-incarcerated advocate who championed New Mexico\u2019s Voting Rights Act. These individuals have an interest in this case because their backgrounds place them at heightened risk of DOJ targeting, a threat that extends to countless other New Mexico voters.<\/p>\n

After federal officials acknowledged<\/a> in November that the DOJ shared voter information with the Department of Homeland Security to search it for noncitizens, Toulouse Oliver joined a group of 10 other secretaries of state<\/a> asking the department if it misled them about how voter information would be used.<\/p>\n

The filing highlights the threat that naturalized citizens and persons whose voting rights were restored after a felony conviction face of being wrongly flagged as ineligible voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mexico voters’ right to privacy is protected by state and federal law, and the federal government is jeopardizing that right by seeking access to their sensitive personal information,” said Megan Keenan, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “The Department of Justice’s lack of transparency about safeguards, access, or limits on uses of voter data raises serious concerns about misuse or abuse \u2014 including risks that this information could be weaponized to justify aggressive voter purges that wrongfully remove eligible voters from the rolls.\u201d<\/p>\n

“New Mexico voters have a right to privacy in their sensitive personal information, and they have a right to vote free from intimidation and improper challenges,” said Mar\u00eda Mart\u00ednez S\u00e1nchez, legal director at ACLU of New Mexico. “The DOJ’s sweeping demand for private voter data\u2014reportedly to build an unauthorized national database and enable mass voter challenges\u2014threatens both rights.”<\/p>\n

\u201cUnelected bureaucrats in Washington have no business accessing New Mexicans\u2019 sensitive personal information,\u201d said Molly Swank, Common Cause\u2019s New Mexico Executive Director. \u201cHanding this data over to the federal government violates the law and would put voters\u2019 private information in the hands of dangerous election conspiracy peddlers. Common Cause is fighting to protect the rights of New Mexico voters and to prevent the potential misuse of their data.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters in New Mexico and across the country deserve to know their personal information is secure and used only for its intended purpose of maintaining accurate records,\u201d said Maryam Jazini Dorcheh, Senior Director of Litigation at Common Cause. \u201cWe are committed to defending voters\u2019 rights and privacy in New Mexico and nationwide, and this case is one of many where we are stepping in to ensure those protections are upheld.\u201d<\/p>\n

To view the New Mexico filing: https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2025\/12\/U.S.-v.-Oliver-Motion-to-Intervene.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA FE, NM \u2014 Today, Common Cause and two New Mexico voters joined the ACLU National Voting Rights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-358679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}