The Nov. 3 general election features a race between the elected clerk of New Mexico’s second-largest county and her opponent, a longtime rancher and nurse practitioner, who are vying to lead the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office.
Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, is nearing the end of her second and final four-term term leading the office, which oversees elections; collects and maintains business records; and enforces campaign finance and lobbyist requirements, among other duties.
The candidates seeking to replace her are Democrat Amanda López Askin, who currently serves as Doña Ana county clerk, and Republican Ramona Goolsby, who came to New Mexico in 2019 after retiring as a nurse practitioner and rancher.
The next secretary of state will take over an office that Toulouse Oliver has repeatedly said is inadequately funded for its wide remit of election-related and other responsibilities.
The upcoming legislative session will also determine whether New Mexico will become an early primary state for the upcoming Democratic presidential primary, which raises the prospect of the Secretary of State’s Office being required to oversee two elections in a short period of time. That includes the November 2027 local election as well as the Democratic presidential primary just four months later in February 2028.
Source NM spoke to both candidates about their visions for the office, which pays an annual salary of $144,714. Their answers below have been edited for clarity and concision.
Ramona Goolsby
Republican Ramona Goolsby said she has spent much of her retirement in New Mexico pushing for transparency and accountability in New Mexico institutions. That includes aiding conservative efforts to repeal via referendum a number of election-related laws the Legislature passed in 2023.
That failed referendum effort related to House Bill 4, aka the New Mexico Voting Rights Act, which established a permanent mail-in voter lists and established pathways for ex-felons to cast ballots, and Senate Bill 180, which provided means to secure sensitive voter data and made other changes.
“I think the more transparency you have, the more trust there is,” Goolsby told Source NM.
She said her interest in becoming secretary of state intensified after the 2020 election, which occurred amid lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She ran unopposed in the Republican primary this June.
“We saw things that were made, policy, during COVID that just didn’t add up,” she said. “We started searching for answers, and that’s how that’s how it started.”
What makes you the most qualified to be the next Secretary of State?
Leadership ability. Owning a ranch and having to hire and fire and make business decisions that my livelihood depends on; I have leadership ability. I was an office manager. I have been a supervisor at a hospital, dealing with employees and scheduling, and I also was in the military, and mission focus is extremely important. The secretary of state’s job is an executive level leadership office. It’s not running for county clerk. It’s completely different. It is about executive level leadership, which I have had a lot of experience with.
If elected, what new initiatives would you implement?
There’s several new things I would like to see implemented.
I would really like to make sure that we support the county clerks in their efforts to do voter roll maintenance. I honestly believe, and I’ve talked with county clerks, that they all want to do a great job, but they don’t have all of the tools they need to get that done.
The other thing I would like to do is establish a transparency portal similar to the Sunshine Portal, where we take all of the information that is frequently requested via IPRA (the Inspection of Public Records Act), and we put that in a searchable database in a portal.
One of the most important jobs, I think, of the Secretary of State’s office, and we don’t focus enough on it, is the business aspect. Whether businesses survive in New Mexico and whether people can have jobs is an everyday consideration for people, not elections. So I think we really need to address our business environment. I have had people ask me even basic things like, ‘When you get in office, will someone answer the phone?’
How would you evaluate the performance of incumbent Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver?
I think she’s tried to do a good job. We have to make sure that everybody on the ballot is eligible, and that we all follow rules. We have problems with election finance. The CFIS system has so many glitches, and people have problems filing. People aren’t held accountable to their filings. I would say I think she tries, but it’s not been as robust an effort as I would have hoped.
If elected, how will you react if President Donald Trump’s administration tries to gain access to the state’s voter rolls again?
We will follow all laws. That is my answer to that. The reason he’s wanting access is that they make sure everyone’s eligible. Well, that’s our job. That’s the state’s job. Statutorily, that is what the secretary of state’s job is, and if I do my job, there should be no reason for anyone to have to get the voter rolls for that reason, right?
We have the ability to have the most pristine voter rolls in the nation. We just have not used all that we have available to make that happen. Maybe one of these days we can sit down and I can show you the analysis that I have done, and it does show that we definitely need to work on the voter rolls.
What steps will you take to strengthen the security of the New Mexico mail-in ballot system?
I believe, honestly, that we should look at making sure the verification system that’s already in place is utilized, and then review and see if anything stronger is needed. It’s just following the law. That’s all we need to do right now.
Do you think SOS requirements should be loosened to make it easier for candidates in minor parties like the New Mexico Forward Party to get on the ballot?
I think everyone should have very similar access requirements. I believe that it’s not just the Forward Party that we’re talking about here. It is the declined-to-states that have significantly increased, and that is a huge bloc. If someone who is independent wants to represent their community, I don’t think they should have a harder time than anybody else. It’s about fair access.
Do you believe the SOS adequately maintains its voter rolls to prevent unqualified people from casting ballots?
I think there are some deficits in the voter roll maintenance.
I could give numbers and names, but I don’t feel that it’s an appropriate time to do that. But I’ll just say that I have access to information that shows there are some people who have moved out of state permanently and are still voting in New Mexico.
What election-related legislation would you support in next year’s session?
Voter ID is something that’s very important to the public. We need to make sure that our vulnerable populations, people that don’t have access to certain documents, that they are able to register and to vote. I think if there’s anyone that needs help, if there are elderly that need help, then I think it is our job, because ID is not just about voting. ID is also about getting your medicine at the pharmacy or checking in for traveling. If you don’t have valid ID, it hinders your life.
Let that be a debate. I mean, let them talk about it on the floor, not hide it in committee or kill it before it even comes to committee.
You’ve said the 2020 presidential election suffered widespread ‘issues’ but that you don’t believe President Joe Biden rigged or stole the election. Do you believe Biden was the lawfully elected president?
He was voted and put in. He was certified by the Congress. I wasn’t out protesting or anything like that. He was certified and he served. If someone asked who the president was, I told them it was Joe Biden because that’s who was in the White House, right?
Amanda López Askin
The Doña Ana County Commission appointed Democrat Amanda López Askin to lead the county clerk’s office following ascandal in 2018. Five days later, early voting began for the 2018 general election, which featured the closely watched 2nd Congressional District race between Democrat Xochitl Torres Small and Republican Yvette Herrell.
“I started with that election. The second election I ran was in 2019, which was the first ranked-choice voting and first consolidated election in my community,” López Askin told Source NM. “And then my third and my fourth was a pandemic primary and a pandemic general. So, my experience speaks for itself.”
The Democratic nominee hails from southern New Mexico, and defeated Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine E. Clark in the June primary election, which she highlights as a geographic achievement of sorts.
“Southern New Mexico candidates do not have the media hub here. We don’t have the donor bases in Santa Fe, and we don’t have the population of Bernalillo County,” she said. “I was told it could not happen. I could not win. It was really, really hard, but worth it.”
What makes you the most qualified to be the next Secretary of State?
Certainly connected to my current opponent, I’m the more qualified candidate. I’ve run 13 elections in the second-most-populous county, in arguably the most contentious elections in our state.
If elected, what new initiatives would you implement?
I’m fortunate to have been in front and center for many of the pro-voting bills that have passed, and that would be the only Native American Voting Rights Act, which I participated in support of, which was embedded in the Voting Rights Act of New Mexico. So we did a lot of huge sweeping improvements. Those really do have to be really followed through and implemented well. I think that will be one of the things that is really important.
The first challenge that I will have —and is not something that’s flashy — I have to do everything I can to support a larger budget for the Secretary of State’s Office. They have been historically underfunded. The clerks across the state in every county continue to run elections well despite being underfunded. And so our Legislature, I’m hoping for a lot of support, especially if we add an early primary in 2028.
How would you evaluate the performance of incumbent Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver?
Maggie has been in elections for 20-plus years. She’s been working in public service for longer than that, and so the sweeping kind of really pro-voter bills she’s been front and center for, and I’ve followed her lead. She has made substantial change and progress, as well as helped get New Mexico to be ranked No. 1 at one point in election administration in our country. She’s held national leadership positions. She’s well respected in every space that I go, connected to elections. So I am very proud to have her support, and I’m very proud to follow her.
If elected, how will you react if President Donald Trump’s administration tries to gain access to the state’s voter rolls again?
I think the great news about the executive orders that continue to come through is that they’re unconstitutional. I have had some disappointments with the Supreme Court, as I think many have, but I also think that there is a momentum of intolerance of things that are unconstitutional, and that is really kind of coupled with a lot of general frustrations with the current state of our country. So far, we are holding the line, and I would say there’s strength in numbers between the county clerks, other secretaries of state across the country, the attorney generals. We will be all hands on deck to fight an overreach by the federal government.
What steps will you take to strengthen the security of the New Mexico mail-in ballot system?
Mail-in voting is extremely secure. To strengthen it would be to make sure we are fully funded, and then we have staff in each of our county clerks’ offices as well as the Secretary of State’s Office to make sure those checks and balances are continually supported. One of the things that I hear often is, ‘Oh, we need to increase the security of elections.’ And I say, ‘Well, staffing is also security. People are security.’
Do you think SOS requirements should be loosened to make it easier for candidates in minor parties like the New Mexico Forward Party to get on the ballot?
I don’t know what that magical number is. But I definitely want to have those conversations.
Do you believe the SOS adequately maintains its voter rolls to prevent unqualified people from casting ballots?
My team and the teams across the state and every county clerk’s office work diligently to remove those who appear in obituaries, any vital statistics information we have from the state, and we also count on family members and those who are aware of a potential death and those who actually move to remove their names from our voter rolls. Additionally, consider this: At noon today our voter rolls could be 100% accurate. At 12:01, something could have made them inaccurate, which means there’s always going to be folks that have moved or, unfortunately, have passed.
We just got to do everything we can to pull those names and remove them, and that is a process. I would venture to say that I am comfortable where our voter rolls are, and that we will continue to follow the law.
What election-related legislation would you support in next year’s session?
I do think that the majority of the session is going to be talking about the timeline for an early primary. We have a local election in November (2027) and then we have recounts, runoffs that could potentially happen at the beginning of December.
And early voting would, in theory, start Jan. 15. And so, clerks always rise to the occasion, and our communities collectively should be very proud of the work that they do. But it is going to be a lot of work, and we will need a lot of support.
Are there any federal election-related initiatives you support?
I cannot think of one that’s been offered, something that has made a splash, that I can think of that I do currently.
