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| Steve Terrell |
Roundhouse Roundup - Secretary of State Dianna Duran made a startling announcement last month during a legislative hearing on whether voters should be required to show photo identification at the polls. Duran said in cross-checking voter registrations with a state Motor Vehicle Division database, her office had found 117 foreign nationals who had registered to vote. All listed Social Security numbers on their voter registrations that didn’t match up with their names. What’s more, Duran said, at least 37 of those people had actually voted in state elections. So who are these people who might have committed voter fraud? The secretary of state won’t say. The day after that hearing, 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.
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| Dianna Duran |
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. “Moreover, the Secretary of State’s Office does not maintain the original voter registration forms for registered voters,” the denial letter stated. “The original forms are maintained by the county clerks in each county. There are approximately 1.16 million registered voters in the state of New Mexico. Therefore, while we anticipate a future comprehensive review of voter registration forms, we cannot provide copies of any voter registration forms that meet your requested criteria at this time.” Of course I hadn’t asked to see all 1.16 million forms, just the 117 she talked about at the legislative hearing. And I would have settled for only those for the 37 apparently illicit voters. Read full story here: Roundhouse Roundup
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