Election mailers, TV advertisements and new online databases are putting personal, public voter roll information in the spotlight. 

New Mexico’s Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, is in a legal battle to try and restrict where public voter roll data is published. 

“I vehemently disagree that this is an appropriate use for voter data,” said Toulouse Oliver. 

VoteRef.com, funded by a former Trump campaign official, seeks to publish the voter roll information online for all 50 states. Its website states it has the “goal of encouraging greater voter participation in all fifty states.” 

“We suspected that their intention in putting that public voter data on the internet was to encourage folks to go out and knock on people’s doors and see if people are actually living there,” Toulouse Oliver said. “Kind of creating vigilante sort of, vote, voter watchers or voter checkers.” 

Voter roll information contains names, addresses, whether or not someone voted and how, and party affiliations. 

Who someone voted for, full birthdates and social security numbers are never published. 

A federal judge sided with VoteRef.com, allowing them to publish New Mexicans’ voter roll data online – Toulouse Oliver is appealing. 

However, not every registered voter has their address published. 

“I took advantage of a recent law that as an elected official, I can make my voter address private,” Toulouse Oliver said. 

State lawmakers made it possible to protect the publication of their addresses after Solomon Peña, a failed Republican candidate, was arrested for orchestrating shootings at elected Democrats’ homes. 

“It’s one thing to know that’s public information,” Toulouse Oliver said of voter roll data. “It’s another thing to know that your data is just out there on the internet. Nobody has to be accountable for asking for that information.” 

While Republican operatives published this data online, Democratic operatives are using this data to pressure people to vote. 

Mailers from the Voter Participation Center list peoples’ addresses, and it shows resident’s voting history and their neighbor’s voting history with a message, “We will be reviewing these records after the election to determine whether or not you joined your neighbors in voting.” 

One state’s Attorney General sent a cease-and-desist order and said the mailers crossed the line. 

A spokesperson for New Mexico’s Attorney General, Raúl Torrez said they are reviewing two complaints related to mailers, and they are under review by the election protection attorneys.