I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
At least one media outlet and the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said in recent days that they are having a hard time getting documents from the Secretary of State’s office about alleged illegal votes in New Mexico.
Secretary of State Dianna Duran made the allegation that 117 foreign nationals were registered to vote and that, of those, 37 voted illegally during the last election. The Santa Fe New Mexican and ACLU-NM both submitted record requests under the Inspection for Public Records Act for the information.
ACLU-NM director Peter Simonson told Clearly New Mexico, a project of the non-profit the Center for Civic Policy, that ACLU-NM received information that was so heavily redacted it was essentially useless.
“The Secretary of State said she redacted the information we requested based on two issues: one, executive privilege; and two, driver privacy protection laws,” Simonson said.
Meanwhile, the Santa Fe New Mexican did not receive anything from the Secretary of State’s office.
The day after that meeting, I submitted a request to Duran’s office under the state Inspection of Public Records Act for copies of the 117 voter registrations, plus any records she had that indicated 37 of those people had voted.
After the 15-day response deadline allowed under the law, I was notified last week that my request was denied.
Citing state and federal privacy laws relating to MVD records, Secretary of State’s Office records custodian Christiana Sanchez wrote, “Based upon advisement of our legal counsel, the records are prohibited from release.”
Media outlets and the ACLU-NM will likely continue to attempt to get the information from the office of the Secretary of State and they may be aided by a Supreme Court decision.
Again from the Clearly New Mexico blog:
Simonson said it was interesting that Duran would use “executive privilege” as an defense, because that is the same defense Bill Richardson used a few years ago when the Republican Party of New Mexico sued to get exactly the same records from his administration.
In fact, that case is currently pending before the New Mexico Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on it just a few weeks ago, Simonson said.
“We may want to see the outcome of that ruling, because it will directly affect what they are allowed to claim under the Open Records Act. We will also be looking into what the state’s driver protection laws say, and how executive privilege has been determined. At this point, we’re still trying to look at how to respond.”
The claim by Duran came during the legislative session where she was calling for requiring voter identification to vote. Duran has said that requiring identification to vote is one of her top priorities as Secretary of State.
