Guest Blog: Maggie Toulouse, Candidate for Bernalillo County Clerk

Editor's Note: When Maggie Toulouse spoke at our DFA-DFNM Meetup last week she promised to send us more information about her qualifications and goals related to her campaign for the position of Bernalillo County Clerk. The Bernalillo County Commission will appoint a candidate on January 1, 2007 to fill the vacancy created by Mary Herrera's election as NM Secretary of State. Here's what Maggie sent:

Maggie Toulouse is the only candidate for Bernalillo County Clerk who has the academic and hands-on experience to improve our electoral system and has a clear agenda to make our elections more transparent, efficient and accessible. 

As the State Director for the non-partisan League of Conservation voters, Maggie led public education campaigns that registered thousands of voters and mobilized hundreds of volunteers to turn out the vote on Election Day.  She has successfully managed several statewide conventions with elections, including the 1996 Democratic Pre-Primary Convention.  As an appointee of the Bernalillo County Commission to the Board of Voter Registration, Maggie pushed for improvements to the voter registration process.

A UNM Phi Beta Kappa with a Masters in Political Science, Ms. Toulouse is a recognized academic having published in the Critique Journal of Politics on New Mexico voting behavior.  She serves as faculty at the UNM Political Science Department and teaches Political Science 200: Introduction to American Politics.

Maggie is running on an agenda for improving our elections process.  As Bernalillo county clerk she will:

• Create new efficiencies and streamline the process of absentee and hand-tallied ballot counting for future elections to ensure reliable results in a time-sensitive manner.

• Implement an election worker retention program and expanded election worker training in order to ensure that Bernalillo County has the best-trained and experienced election team in the nation.

• Work to ensure safeguards against voter fraud and voter intimidation and further protect the privacy of the paper ballot system.

She currently serves as a consultant to Common Cause New Mexico.  Maggie is the proud mother of Christian Toulouse, age 9.

If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Maggie Toulouse at magtoulouse@hotmail.com or 505-833-2023. Click for a Word document version of this resume, should you want to share it with others.

Editor's Notes: If you'd like to contact your Bernalillo County Commissioner to express your views on the candidate they should appoint as Bernalillo County Clerk, . To determine which Commission district you reside in click here and enter your street address.

This post was submitted by guest blogger Maggie Toulouse. If you'd like to submit a post for possible publication here as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of our main page.