Georgia Mountain News

Voter Reference Foundation (VRF), an election integrity group, filed a First Amendment lawsuit against New Mexico officials on Monday to ensure publication of the state's voter rolls. 

VRF runs VoteRef.com, a national voter transparency database.

Doug Truax, founder and president of Restoration Action, noted that the public has a right to see the state's voter rolls, a Wednesday report by Just the News said. He added that if the state tries to block them, they will assert that right in a court of law. Restoration Action is the organization that started VRF.

"We are not going to be deterred by partisan election officials who believe the election records taxpayers pay for are their personal possessions," Truax said in the report.

The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque to uphold the organization's right to publish the voter rolls so that taxpayers can view them. In the suit, VRF alleges that Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver falsely publicly claimed VRF illegally published New Mexico's voter rolls.

"The taxpayers of New Mexico pay for election administration, and they have an absolute right to view the records that are produced," Truax said in the report. "Confidence in American elections is at a low ebb, and one reason is a lack of transparency."

The suit also alleges that Oliver has a history of refusing to release public voting records, having previously refused when former President Trump requested the records in 2017.

VoteRef.com added Georgia to its database in November 2021, the report said.