We wanted to inform you about a recent New Mexico Supreme Court decision that found the Secretary of State had violated the Constitutional rights of citizens in one Congressional race.
Here’s what happened:
As required, Golden Morper turned in her petition forms on time on February 4. Suddenly, on the11th, the deadline for SOS to certify candidates, she was told she was disqualified. The next day the SOS informed her that 44 of 49 petition pages—containing more than 770 signatures—were invalid because the top headers was missing. It was a technicality, and, in fact, the header is not required, according to state statute. Golden Morper did have all the necessary statutory information: name, address, party, county office sought etc. and well over the required number of signatures.
Golden Morper took legal action against Secretary of State’s Maggie Toulouse Oliver.
The First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe agreed with the SOS, and Golden Morper appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court. The High Court overturned the lower court ruling by a vote of 4-1. The Justices agreed there was nothing wrong with the petition.
After the SOS defeat, the Office dated & mailed Golden Morper a letter the day before the Convention, saying she could be a candidate (by order of the Supreme Court).
“This wrongful action by the Secretary of State definitely hurt my campaign,” Golden Morper said. “People weren’t aware I was in contention. The Secretary of State kept delaying my case to keep me off the ballot. They wanted to tarnish my campaign. Maggie Toulouse Oliver sabotaged my campaign. I narrowly missed the required delegate votes at the Convention.”
Afterwards, Golden Morper said, “I decided to suspend my campaign and support all the Republican candidates running in New Mexico to turn our state RED!”
