By Mike Easterling from Santa Fe New Mexican
Liz Penniman said she’s been voting on Election Day since she moved to New Mexico three years ago.
“It’s just to have the feeling of voting with everybody,” she said. “It just feels right.”
She was one of many Santa Feans who cast ballots Tuesday at St. John’s United Methodist Church on Old Pecos Trail.
At the close of a midterm election that many have seen as a high-stakes contest, officials counted a higher turnout of voters in Santa Fe County as well as statewide.
More than 71,000 votes were cast in the county by Tuesday evening, meaning at least 60% of eligible voters participated, according to preliminary count provided by the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office. This year’s numbers represent an increase of more than 1,000 county voters from the midterm elections four years ago.
Statewide, about 50% of eligible voters — almost 730,000 New Mexicans — cast ballots, an increase of more than 15,000 from the 2022 election.
One of the leaders of Observe New Mexico Elections, a nonpartisan organization that observes elections in the state, said Tuesday afternoon said the information she was receiving indicated polls were seeing lots of voters all over the state.
“Turnout is high, which is very exciting,” Carmen López said.
Watching the election
Observe New Mexico Elections — which began operating in the state in 2024 and is affiliated with The Carter Center, an organization that works to advance democracy around the world — had at least 255 observers stationed at polls in every county in the state Tuesday.
López said the only issues observers had reported were some problems with same-day registrations at the poll at San Ildefonso Pueblo and some long lines for voters at three locations in Bernalillo County, where election results were slow to come in Tuesday night.
She noted the challenge folks in many New Mexico counties — such as San Juan, Taos, Catron and Rio Arriba — likely faced difficulty reaching polling sites after recent flooding. She added she was impressed by the resolve of poll workers in such counties to simply assure their polling places were open.
“Poll workers have been really creative in these elections,” López said. “They’re doing everything they can to take care of voters.”
Members of the progressive organization Land of Action also observed the election at polling places around the state Tuesday under a state law that allows people with training and certification to ensure proper protocols are being followed.
Heidi Feldman, a Santa Fe legal scholar and founder of the group, said its election watchers encountered some broken voting machines and long lines — including in rural places — but the issues they found were “mostly easy to resolve.”
“On the day of [the election], when there’s a strain on the voting infrastructure, what this is a sign of is that the New Mexico state Legislature needs to keep investing in election infrastructure,” Feldman said.
A state district judge granted the organization a temporary restraining order last month, ordering Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark to allow its election watchers into county polling places after Clark tried to turn down their secretary of state-issued certification.
“We set out to show that it’s a community’s job to take care of elections, to keep them free and fair, and so far, I’m really proud of New Mexico,” Feldman said.
‘It’s the deadline’
Julia Roberts, who cast a ballot at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Santa Fe, said she never votes early — she wants to keep her options open as long as possible. “It’s like naming a baby before it’s born.”
Roberts pointed to the numerous political developments that have taken place just over the last week and said there might be many folks who voted early who would have changed their mind if they had waited until Election Day.
“Things happen; the world changes,” she said.
Krystal Hendricks, who voted at the Southside Branch Library on Jaguar Drive, waits until Election Day to vote because “it’s the deadline — you have to get it done,” she said sheepishly, acknowledging she often is a procrastinator when it comes to casting a ballot.
That didn’t mean Hendricks didn’t feel strongly about some of the issues on the ballot. She said she was highly motivated to support many of the city, county and state bond issues because she has a disabled child, and she often finds infrastructure in New Mexico lacking — including cracked or crumbling sidewalks that make it difficult to push a child in a stroller.
Charles Julien also described himself as a procrastinator but said voting is very important to him, something he learned from his father, a native of Cuba who came to the United States during the Bay of Pigs era.
“He was all about the [voting] process in the U.S. because of where he came from,” Julien said. “He kind of instilled that in me. … He taught me it’s one place you can make a difference as a citizen.”
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