New Mexico Secretary of State testifies in congressional committee on voter confidence

New Mexico’s Maggie Toulouse Oliver was one of six secretaries of state who testified before a congressional committee Wednesday in Washington about the challenges of maintaining voter confidence, the methods used to secure elections and the harassment election officials face.

There was a partisan divide in the types of questions that members of the Committee on House Administration leveled at the six election officials, with Republicans worried about noncitizens voting and Democrats concerned about the harassment of election officials and consistent federal funding for election administration.

But there was bipartisan agreement that congressionally staffed nonpartisan election observers would be welcome at ballot counts nationwide. All six secretaries of state said such observers would be welcome.

“Funding for elections is really important,” Toulouse Oliver said. “When we’re combating nation-states, when we’re trying to fight the misinformation and disinformation that is coming from other places beyond the borders of this country, we need that assistance and that consistent federal funding.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes also stressed the need for more federal dollars to administer elections.

Toulouse Oliver said she is concerned with the decline in public confidence in election administration and election results.

“Because of what has now been years of false election claims and ideological attempts to discredit our voting systems and processes, much of the heightened awareness of elections is now colored by conspiracies, misinformation and frankly, outright lies,” Toulouse Oliver said.

That distrust fuels harassment of election workers, according to Toulouse Oliver. She said that one strategy New Mexico has used to address that distrust is a statewide media campaign over the past two election cycles to help connect the public with local election administrators.

Some of the ways New Mexico keeps elections secure and accurate are post-election audits, 100% paper ballots, air-gapped counting systems that do not connect to the internet or a computer network, and year-round voter list maintenance.

Chairman Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., asked if photo IDs would increase voter confidence. Toulouse Oliver said no, she does not think that photo IDs are a “magic bullet.”

Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., asked Toulouse Oliver about the timeline for filling congressional seats to ensure the continuity of government in a mass casualty event. The Government Accountability Office is studying if states can quickly fill House vacancies following a mass casualty event.

Federal law requires that seats be filled within 49 days via special election if more than 100 of the House seats are vacant, a law enacted after 9/11. Toulouse Oliver said she does not think that’s a realistic timeline, because ballots sent to military service members overseas need to be mailed out at least 45 days before an election.