Friday morning I received an email telling me, “You have been Approved For UNITED STATES SENATOR.” It looked like SPAM, phishing, or some other kind of scam and I didn’t get a chance to look into the authenticity until after work when I realized the New Mexico Secretary of State’s petition portal had made a mistake and has, apparently, added my legal name to the office’s petition signature portal which is meant to get candidates on the ballot for U.S. Senate.

Below is the letter I sent to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office after discovering what had occurred. I hope this situation is dealt with quickly because I have no desire to get involved in a federal race of any kind. I also hope the office looks into the situation and sees if other people have also been a victim of their errant petition portal system.

Have you had something similar happen to you with the voter registration portal? Send me an email here. If the New Mexico Secretary of State can’t get something this simple right, how much more important is it for voters to be watchful as elections draw closer?

To whom it may concern;

The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office online petition portal has made a serious mistake. You are listing me, and my home address, on a signature petition and allowing people to sign petitions to put MY name on the ballot. I demand you remove me immediately and send a message correcting this misunderstanding to any voter(s) who have signed my petition, and correct the error(s) on your website and portals that made this terrible mistake.

Yesterday morning, in an email stamped 9:57 a.m., from your email address: noreply-petitions@sos.nm.gov I was told, “You have been Approved For UNITED STATES SENATOR.” When I received this email I was at work, thought it might be a spam or phishing email when I briefly reviewed it on my break, and wasn’t able to figure out what your message meant until I was off work in the evening. Now your portal is letting people sign to put my name on the ballot for a federal race, which I have no intention of running for. (See attached screenshot)

How I believe this happened: Over a month ago, I was trying to sign a petition for a U.S. Senate candidate and apparently, somehow, created an account of some kind in the process (through which I thought I was able to sign petitions). As a matter of fact, I got an email from your office after I tried to figure out the portal, implying I had not put my voter registration information in incorrectly (please see the attached document for screenshot). 

Yesterday evening, I logged into MY end of the portal, following the directions in the aforementioned email you sent yesterday morning, and one voter has signed to put my name on the ballot of this U.S. Senate, federal, race.

I see that there is scheduled maintenance for your website for the business and voter registration portals scheduled for this weekend, however, this does not address my concerns about my information appearing, inappropriately, on your website and website portal(s).

Why was my name put out there as a U.S. Senate candidate? I’d like all my information removed and corrected and the individual(s) who has signed to put me on the ballot told about the mistake that your office made in allowing my name to be viewed on the portal! This mistake on the part of your office, that implies I am running for federal office, created the groundwork for legal ramifications that your office would be subject to respond to.

Please keep me updated as you remove my “candidate” information and correct the errors in your portals, databases, and websites.

Sincerely,

Rebekah Stevens

New Mexico Voter and Resident

Screenshot #4:

Secretary of State’s website petition signature portal showing my name as one of several candidates for U.S. Senate.