By Sen. Martin Heinrich
SANTA FE — U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, hosted a roundtable with New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and local election officials March 3 to discuss the unprecedented threats to Americans’ right to vote and New Mexico’s elections posed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Trump’s U.S. Department of Justice is currently suing New Mexico for unfettered access to the state’s voter rolls. This comes on the heels of Trump’s DOJ seizing voter rolls in Georgia and demanding access to voting rolls in Minneapolis. Trump has also proposed gutting key election infrastructure funding and pushed for passage of legislation that would disenfranchise millions of Americans.
Heinrich, Toulouse Oliver, and local election officials addressed these and other domestic election security threats heading into the 2026 midterms, including fears that the administration could use U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deter American citizens from voting.
“We are seeing new threats that are unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before, and that’s because these threats are coming from within our own federal government – from our Commander in Chief and from inside the White House,” Heinrich said. “President Trump has already called for nationalizing our elections and abolishing mail-in and absentee voting. Let me be clear: We’re not doing any of that. And when he isn’t trying to dismantle our local elections, he is trying to get his hands on our unredacted voter rolls. Your personal information…Your records, your Social Security number, your driver’s license information.
“And as if this wasn’t enough, there are also very real fears about President Trump using the Department of Justice to confiscate ballots and voting machines, disrupting postal delivery of mail-in ballots, attempting to invalidate certain kinds of ballots and votes, and using the Department of Homeland Security or ICE at, or around, election sites,” Heinrich said. “His own Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security has even said that they will absolutely deploy ICE to ensure that they have ‘the right people voting electing the right leaders.’ A blatant effort to scare American citizens away from making their voices heard. I think it will be deeply unsuccessful.
“Our message today is simple: Not on our watch. We’re not having any of it, and I will do everything in my power to protect every American citizen’s right to vote and access to their election,” Heinrich said.
“Events like these are so important for the public to really understand the careful work that goes into election administration in New Mexico,” Toulouse Oliver said. “As we look forward to the primary and general elections this year, New Mexico’s election administrators stand ready to continue to do what we do best – run a secure and accessible process for voters across the state – despite some very concerning changes being debated at the federal level and despite alarming rhetoric from the President.”
