New Mexico Republicans have taken the fight over a printed voter guide error straight to court, asking a judge to stop election officials from handing out League of Women Voters guides at polling places across the state. The lawsuit centers on a photo mix-up in the League's 2026 voter guide, which mistakenly printed the picture of an independent Taos County commission candidate next to the name of the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.
The suit names New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver as defendant and lists the Republican National Committee, the Republican Party of New Mexico, and Senate candidate Larry Marker as plaintiffs, according to the Albuquerque Journal. The error itself involved a photo of Nehemiah J. Vasquez, an independent running for Taos County Commission District 5, appearing in place of Marker's picture in the Republican Senate race listing, the paper reports. The Las Cruces Sun-News also covered the filing as part of its elections coverage.
Beyond the photo swap itself, the lawsuit makes a broader legal argument: that distributing the guides at polling places violates New Mexico's electioneering law, which bars campaign-related activity within 100 feet of a polling place. That claim, laid out in the Journal's reporting, forms the core legal basis for the Republicans' request that a judge block the guides from being handed out statewide, not just correct the photo error.
Where The Case Stands
The suit was filed Friday in the 5th Judicial District Court, with a hearing scheduled for Monday afternoon before Judge Jared Kallunki, the Journal reports.
The League of Women Voters of New Mexico addressed the photo error directly in a statement posted to its website. The organization said the mistake centered on the publication of an incorrect photograph of the Republican Senate candidate — though the League's own correction page spells his name “Maker,” while the Journal's reporting on the lawsuit spells it “Marker.” The League of Women Voters of New Mexico said in its statement that the mistake with the photograph has no effect on the candidate's responses contained within the guide.
League Says Fix Is Already In Place
According to the League's statement, the online versions of its guide and the guides from all Leagues in the state, including Las Cruces, have been corrected. The League of Women Voters of Central New Mexico echoed that point on Facebook, saying the issue is limited to the photograph of one candidate and only in the printed guide, and that all LWV online resources for the election have the correct picture.
The Los Alamos Reporter similarly reported on the League's Oct. 29 news release, noting the organization was issuing a correction to its published 2026 voter guide after identifying an error involving candidate photographs. That earlier correction came one day before the Republicans' lawsuit sought to go further by blocking the printed guides from polling places altogether.
For now, the central dispute is less about which candidate's face ended up misattributed and more about whether a nonpartisan voter guide, even a corrected one, belongs anywhere near a polling place under New Mexico's electioneering rules. That question was set for a hearing before Judge Kallunki.
