Bernalillo County Clerk Toulouse Oliver was appointed as the
county clerk of
Bernalillo County, New Mexico, by the
county commission on January 2, 2007, to fill the unexpired term of
Mary Herrera, who was elected
New Mexico Secretary of State in November 2006. As county clerk, Toulouse Oliver created a smartphone app that provides users with information about voting, such as directions to their closest voting center, hours of operation, and information about the length of the wait in line to vote. Toulouse Oliver also lead the implementation of voting centers in Bernalillo County, in an effort to reduce wait times and the need for
provisional ballots.
New Mexico Secretary of State Following the resignation of
Dianna Duran as Secretary of State, Toulouse Oliver defeated
Republican Nora Espinoza in the November 2016
special election to fill the remainder of the term. She was sworn into the position on December 9, 2016. As Secretary of State, Toulouse Oliver has modernized the voter registration system in New Mexico, and advocated for
automatic voter registration and same-day voter registration, both of which are now law in the state. Toulouse Oliver also instituted New Mexico's first
sexual harassment prevention trainings for
lobbyists. She has advocated for and enacted stronger
campaign finance disclosure rules, bringing greater transparency to
independent political spending in New Mexico. Toulouse Oliver has lobbied and advocated for
open primary elections and
ranked choice voting. Toulouse Oliver founded New Mexico's
Native American Voting Task Force, which works to increase
voter turnout in Native American communities in New Mexico. The task force has worked together with the
League of Women Voters to create voter guides for use in native communities. Toulouse Oliver also refused to turn over voter information to
President Trump's
Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, citing security, legal, and privacy concerns related to voters’ confidential information such as
Social Security numbers, birthdates, and voting history. Toulouse Oliver has advocated for
elections security, and has ensured that the state of New Mexico employs many election security best practices, including the use of
paper ballots and post-election audits. The office of the Secretary of State recently created a full-time dedicated
cybersecurity staffer to “make sure [people] know that their votes are counted and their voices are heard." In 2018, Toulouse Oliver testified as an
expert witness before the
U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on elections security and cybersecurity issues. In 2017, she was a founding member of the Elections Government Sector Coordinating Council, which works with the
Department of Homeland Security to inform policy on elections as
critical national infrastructure. Toulouse Oliver sits on the board of the New Mexico
Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, the Public Employees Retirement Association board, and the Commission of Public Records board. In November 2024, after the
presidential election, Toulouse Oliver accused state representative
John Block of encouraging online harassment she had received. Block said he too had been harassed, and said, "If it gets to violent threats like you described that you got, I apologize that that is happening to you."
Awards and recognition In 2016, Toulouse Oliver was named one of the
EMILY's List Gabrielle Giffords Award nominees. As New Mexico's Secretary of State, Toulouse Oliver was named the Treasurer and Elections Committee Co-Chair of the
National Association of Secretaries of State, and was awarded Election Administrator of the Year by
FairVote, both in 2018. Her office was awarded the New Mexico Family Friendly Business Award in 2017, 2018, and 2019. She was awarded the Election Assistance Commission's annual “Clearie” award in February 2019 for her work to make elections more accessible to blind and visually impaired voters. In 2018, she was named as a
W.K. Kellogg Foundation Leadership Network Fellow, and in 2019 she was named as a Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellow at the Hunt Institute.
United States Senate campaign Toulouse Oliver was seen as a potential
2020 candidate for the
United States Senate. After
Tom Udall announced that he would not seek re-election in 2020, Toulouse Oliver said she was "seriously considering" a run for the Senate seat, and launched her campaign on April 24, 2019. ==Electoral history==