New Mexico’s supreme court has ruled that the attempt to institute party-line voting — by the state’s secretary of state, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who is up for reeelection this year herself — is illegal. The court unanimously held that Toulouse Oliver could not unilaterally usurp legislative powers. As Justice Judith Nakamura stated while handing down the decision, “This power is theirs alone, and the Legislature has indicated its intent to thoroughly regulate how ballots appear.”

Toulouse Oliver’s move was widely seen as self-serving, designed to take advantage of the state’s Democratic bent in order to get around the unpopularity of its Democratic elected officials, and to reduce the electoral chances of the popular former Republican governor, Gary Johnson, who is currently running for Senate on the Libertarian ticket. (Critics of the change included disenchanted Democrats as well, who presumably value the rule of law over party political gains.)

Toulouse Oliver continued to insist that “This has never been a partisan decision for me . . . It’s always been about ease for the voters.” One wonders, though, if it were so difficult to vote before, how Toulouse Oliver herself was elected two years ago? When asked, she would not commit to supporting a bill in the state legislature to authorize straight party voting, which is strange considering that she continues to claim that such a change would improve voter access. Or perhaps it’s not so strange: She won’t be running next year.