2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 1 - Elections › Article 4 - Registration of Electors › Section 1-4-5.5 - Requests for voter data, mailing labels or special voter lists.

A. The county clerk or secretary of state shall furnish voter data, mailing labels or special voter lists only upon written request to the county clerk or the secretary of state and after compliance with the requirements of this section; provided, however, all requesters shall be treated equally in regard to the charges and the furnishing of the materials.
B. In furnishing voter data, mailing labels or special voter lists, the county clerk or secretary of state shall not provide data or lists that include voters' social security numbers, codes used to identify agencies where voters have registered, a voter's day and month of birth or voters' telephone numbers if prohibited by voters.
C. Each requester of voter data, mailing labels or special voter lists shall sign an affidavit that the voter data, mailing labels and special voter lists shall be used for governmental or election and election campaign purposes only and shall not be made available or used for unlawful purposes.
D. The secretary of state shall prescribe the form of the affidavit.
E. As used in this section:
(1) "election campaign purposes" means relating in any way to a campaign in an election conducted by a federal, state or local government;
(2) "governmental purposes" means noncommercial purposes relating in any way to the structure, operation or decision-making of a federal, state or local government;
(3) "mailing labels" means prepared mailing labels of selected voters arranged in the order in which requested and providing only the name and address of the voter;
(4) "special voter list" means a prepared list of selected voters arranged in the order in which requested; and
(5) "voter data" means selected information derived from the voter file.
History:
1953 Comp., § 3-5-29, enacted by Laws 1975, ch. 255, § 78; 1995, ch. 166, § 6; 2005, ch. 270, § 35; 1978 Comp., § 1-5-24 recompiled as § 1-4-5.5 by Laws 2011, ch. 137, § 109; 2015, ch. 145, § 15.
ANNOTATIONS
Recompilations.
— Laws 2011, ch. 137, § 109 recompiled former 1-5-24 NMSA 1978 as 1-4-5.5 NMSA 1978 effective July 1, 2011.
The 2015 amendment,
effective July 1, 2015, added definitions for "election campaign purposes", "governmental purposes", "mailing labels", "special voter list" and "voter data"; and added Subsection E.
Election Code does not prohibit the publication of voter data online.
— Where plaintiff, a voting advocacy organization which sought to publish voter data on its website, brought a federal civil action against the New Mexico Attorney General and the New Mexico Secretary of State, alleging that the secretary of state's interpretations of statutory restrictions on the use of voter data violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and where plaintiff moved for a preliminary injunction seeking to enjoin the attorney general and the secretary of state from prohibiting plaintiff from disseminating or using New Mexico voter information for purposes related to election integrity, and from prosecuting plaintiff for unlawful use of voter data, the court held that plaintiff was entitled to a preliminary injunction, because plaintiff's election-related work in analyzing and evaluating the secretary of state's work related to the operation of a state government, and is, therefore, a "governmental purpose" as defined in this section, and plaintiff's crowd-sourcing work, which encouraged users to check their own and others' voter data and inform the secretary of state of any errors they find also falls within this section's broad definition of "governmental purposes". New Mexico's Election Code does not prohibit plaintiff, or any organization, from posting voter data online, so long as the organization does not publish voters' birth information or any portion of a voter's social security number.
Voter Reference Found., LLC v. Balderas
, ___ F. Supp.3d ___ (10th Cir. 2022).