Would Secretary of State hopeful and Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie T. Oliver use her position to give her own dark money allies and friends a leading edge?

Just two days after tweeting a comment about supporting “accountability in elections” (this tweet alone is misleading hypocritical due to the support of dark money organizations Oliver receives), Maggie T. Oliver, tweeted a couple of other comments of interest. But before going into that, here is a New Mexico statute that is very interesting– particularly the italicized and boldened lines:

A. Electioneering too close to the polling place consists of any form of campaigning within:

(1) one hundred feet of the building in which the polling place is located on election day when voting at a school, church or private residence; and

(2) one hundred feet of the door through which voters may enter to vote at the office of the county clerk, an alternate voting location, a mobile voting site or any location used as a polling place on election day that is not a school, church or private residence.

B. Electioneering includes the display or distribution of signs or campaign literature, campaign buttons, t-shirts, hats, pins or other such items and includes the verbal or electronic solicitation of votes for a candidate or question.

C. Whoever commits electioneering too close to the polling place is guilty of a petty misdemeanor.

New Mexico election statutes appear quite clear– no electioneering from the county clerk’s office while voting is underway. Yet Maggie T. Oliver, who wants to be Secretary of State, seems to have accessed her Twitter account from the county clerk’s office during early voting, a polling place with internet access, to post minute-by-minute updates on how many people had already voted during early voting in the 2014 primary election.

Just a minute after 8:30 a.m. it appears that Ms. Oliver, was online (accessing Twitter via web according to Twitter– using a Bernalillo County computer?) to tell the world how many people had voted since early voting started 30 minutes before.

The tweet was in fact sent from Ms. Oliver’s campaign Twitter account; Oliver appears to have been promoting herself from the county clerk’s office (possibly using a county computer– unless she opened up her personal laptop?) and engaging in what a state statute forbids as “electronic electioneering” for a “candidate” which is also a “petty misdemeanor.”

Perhaps Ms. Oliver can explain how she accomplished the feat of sending these tweets below without violating a state statute?!

Is this the kind of integrity and balance we would see from Maggie T. Oliver if she were elected?!

Please support Sec. of State Dianna Duran– she is a competent, honest and balanced official we can count on in Santa Fe!