Enchantment State News

Some elected officials in New Mexico have been accused of spreading misinformation about elections instead of supporting county clerks and encouraging voter participation. This misinformation, particularly the claim that non-citizens vote in large numbers, has been circulating since 2020. It aims to create distrust in the election system and lay the groundwork for legal challenges if former President Donald Trump loses again in 2024.

This narrative is not new; it was previously promoted by former New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran in 2011 without evidence. In a recent op-ed by Rep. Jim Townsend and other state Republican officials published in the ABQ Journal, they claimed that the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office is encouraging illegal voting through outreach mailers. These mailers have been sent before every election since 2016 and clearly state that registrants must meet all eligibility requirements, including U.S. citizenship.

The conservative Heritage Foundation conducted a study showing only 24 instances of non-citizen voting nationwide over two decades from 2003 to 2023. The false narrative about non-citizen voting has now reached New Mexico, but data shows that such occurrences are rare.

New Mexico Secretary of State encourages voters to rely on trusted sources for election information, like their county clerk or the Secretary of State’s Office. The office also offers a "Rumor vs. Reality" page to fact-check common misinformation narratives ahead of the November 5th General Election.

New Mexico prides itself on secure and accessible elections, using paper ballots exclusively, ensuring machines are not connected to the internet, performing mandatory audits after every election, and continually updating voter rolls for accuracy. The state was recently recognized as having the best elections in the nation by MIT's Elections Performance Index.