Roswell judge strips League of Women Voters guides from New Mexico polls

Voters in New Mexico will need to bring their own copies of the League of Women Voters guide to polling places on Tuesday, following a court order issued Monday that mandates the removal of the materials from state ballot locations. The directive stems from an injunction granted by 5th Judicial District Judge Jared Kallunki, who ruled in favor of New Mexico Republicans challenging the presence of the guides at polling sites.

The immediate cause of the legal action was a factual error in the printed 2026 voter guide. The document, which is typically distributed outside polling entrances, displayed a photograph of Nehemiah J. Vasquez, an independent candidate for Taos County Commission District 5, in the space designated for Larry Marker, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. Marker is challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján in this cycle.

New Mexico Republicans filed the lawsuit on Friday, naming Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver as the primary defendant. Other plaintiffs included the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of New Mexico. The suit cited the incorrect photograph but also raised a broader legal question about whether distributing the guides constitutes prohibited electioneering under state law.

Judge Kallunki’s order specifies that voter guides produced by the League of Women Voters for the 2026 election must not be supplied to voters, posted visibly, or stored in any location visible to voters within 100 feet of a polling place. The ruling explicitly allows individual voters to bring a guide to the polls for their personal use, provided they did not receive it from the polling place staff.

Shortly after noon on Monday, Secretary of State Toulouse Oliver issued guidance to county clerks statewide instructing them to remove the guides from all locations. Peter Auh, the agency’s attorney, confirmed that many county clerks had already taken the materials down by that time. The League of Women Voters Central New Mexico posted a statement on its Facebook page on Friday apologizing for the mistake.

Hannah Burling, president of the League of Women Voters of New Mexico, stated that the organization takes its responsibility to provide accurate information seriously. The League explained that the error was identified only after the printed guides entered production, preventing corrections before distribution. The group noted that the photo of Vasquez appeared in place of Marker in the printed midterm guide.

The lawsuit argues that the League of Women Voters, though founded as an apolitical organization, has evolved in its membership and policy priorities. The plaintiffs contend that this evolution makes the guides partisan materials, violating the state ban on electioneering within the 100-foot buffer zone. This is not the first time the guides have faced legal scrutiny; a previous Republican secretary of state, Dianna Duran, banned them in 2011 before the current administration lifted the restriction.