Roswell Judge Orders Statewide Removal of League of Women Voters Guides From Polling Places
Voters heading to the polls on Tuesday who rely on League of Women Voters guides will need to bring their own printed copies from home, following a legal maneuver that has upended election distribution across New Mexico.
The injunction stems from a printed error in the 2026 voter guide where a photograph of Nehemiah J. Vasquez, an independent candidate for the Taos County Commission District 5, was mistakenly published in place of Larry Marker, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate challenging U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M.
On Monday, 5th Judicial District Judge Jared Kallunki ordered county clerks statewide to remove the voter guides from all polling locations. The order mandates that guides produced by the organization must not be supplied to voters, posted visibly, or stored within 100 feet of any polling place in the state.
The legal challenge was filed on Friday by the New Mexico Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, and candidate Larry Marker, naming New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver as a defendant. While the visible photograph mix-up served as the immediate catalyst for the emergency injunction, the lawsuit pushes a much broader legal argument regarding whether stacking these voter guides near ballot boxes violates state prohibitions against electioneering within 100 feet of polling locations.
State Officials Order Removal of Voting Materials
Shortly after noon on Monday, state election officials took swift action. Peter Auh, attorney for the Secretary of State’s office, noted that Toulouse Oliver issued guidance to county clerks across New Mexico asking them to pull the materials immediately, with many jurisdictions having already cleared the guides from voting sites.
The Republican plaintiffs argue that despite its historical framing as an apolitical organization, the League of Women Voters has shifted significantly in its membership composition and policy priorities. The legal filing highlights that a similar ban was previously enacted under Dianna Duran, who served as New Mexico secretary of state from 2011 to 2015, who ordered the guides removed in 2011 under state electioneering laws, before Toulouse Oliver lifted that restriction upon taking office in 2016.
For its part, the League of Women Voters Central New Mexico issued a public apology on its Facebook page once the production error came to light, noting that the incorrect photograph entered production before it could be caught and corrected.
Voters deserve accurate, reliable information when making decisions about their representation, and we take that responsibility seriously. We sincerely apologize to Mr. Marker and Mr. Vasquez for this error.
Hannah Burling, President of the League of Women Voters of New Mexico The LWV
While the court order halts the distribution of physical stacks at voting sites, Judge Kallunki’s ruling explicitly clarifies that individual voters remain entirely free to bring a voter guide with them to the polls for their own person use.
