FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
22 July 2020
Contact:
Alex Curtas, Director of Communications
New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office
505-469-2783
alex.curtas@state.nm.us
Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver Assumes Presidency of National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS)
Founded in 1904, NASS is the nation’s oldest, nonpartisan professional organization for public officials
SANTA FE – Today, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver became President of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), the nation’s oldest, nonpartisan professional organization for public officials.
Secretary Toulouse Oliver assumed the presidency today during the final day of the NASS Virtual Summer Conference, taking over the role from Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate. She will serve a one year-term ending in July 2021. Secretary Toulouse Oliver has previously served as President-elect, Treasurer, and as chair of the elections committee for NASS.
“As I assume the NASS Presidency in this unique and important time in our country’s history I’m filled with both a sense of gratitude and gravity,” said Secretary Toulouse Oliver. “NASS is an organization with a long history of helping create better public policy through the exchange of ideas among Secretaries of State throughout the nation and I’m extremely proud for the opportunity to lead it for the next year.”
More information about the work of NASS can be found on their website here. And a full list of the new NASS Executive Board, also inducted today with Secretary Toulouse Oliver, can be found here.
A full bio for Secretary Toulouse Oliver is included below for use by media outlets.
Bio
Maggie Toulouse Oliver has called New Mexico home since the age of 3 and is New Mexico’s 26th Secretary of State. She has served the people of New Mexico in this role since first being elected in 2016.
She was first appointed to public office in 2007 when she became County Clerk in New Mexico’s largest county, Bernalillo County. Elected to her first full term in 2008, Secretary Toulouse Oliver served 2 1/2 terms as County Clerk until she was elected as Secretary of State in 2016. Overseeing elections in the state’s largest county gave Secretary Toulouse Oliver detailed, on-the-ground expertise in election administration that has helped to guide her current work overseeing elections statewide.
Secretary Toulouse Oliver has been involved in politics and public policy for over two decades and has made public service the focus of her career. Her work has focused on increasing voter access, running efficient, secure, and fair elections, and bringing more transparency and increased ethical standards to government.
Secretary Toulouse Oliver worked her way through college and graduate school. While earning her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Political Science from the University of New Mexico, Secretary Toulouse Oliver worked for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman in his DC Office and on his re-election campaign in 2000. She also gained activism and organizing experience working with Native American tribes in New Mexico, fighting for reproductive justice, and protecting the Environment as the NM State Director for the League of Conservation Voters.
Since becoming Secretary of State she has implemented increased transparency rules for financial disclosure and campaign finance reporting, modernized the online campaign finance system, helped craft and pass good government legislation like same-day voter registration, automated voter registration, and the state’s newly-formed Ethics Commission.
In addition to her elected position, Secretary Toulouse Oliver is the President of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), and has previously served NASS as President-Elect, Treasurer, and chair of the elections committee. She serves as a board member of New Mexico’s Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA), the New Mexico Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, and the state Commission on Records and Archives. She is a member of New Mexico’s Complete Count Commission for the 2020 Census, and is currently a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Fellow. She is also the proud mother of two sons, Christian and Max.
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