While local elections can get a boost on participation when there’s a key office or issue on the ballot, they don’t see near the turnout that statewide and national contests do. However, even without a mayor up for election, Santa Fe County residents came out in large numbers Tuesday. That was not the case for the state’s largest county.
While two and a half times the number of ballots were cast in Bernalillo County than Santa Fe, it also has significantly more eligible voters. So, the county’s more than 82,700 votes this election works out to a mere 19.5% turnout. Meanwhile, Santa Fe County surpassed 30% with over 32,500 ballots cast. Clerk Katharine Clark said that’s a county record for a local election, up from 24% two years ago.
“We knew that we would see high turnout,” she said. “I think we were surprised, even amongst ourselves, that it was quite so high.”
She said the approved “mansion tax” was a big draw, but so was a “hotly contested” school board race between Sarah Boses and challengers Patricia Vigil-Stockton and John McKenna, which the incumbent took home.
Clark said the Santa Fe City Council District 1 race also brought voters out.
“It was a four-way race, and there were two candidates who were considered neck-and-neck,” she said. “And that is actually what we saw on Election Night.”
Alma Castro came out victorious in that race after three rounds of ranked choice voting.
While maybe not the driving force behind the strong turnout, Clark also mentioned the county’s custom stickers meant to encourage young people to come out to the polls as part of what she called the office’s “team turnout” effort. That also included candidate trainings on increasing voter participation and customer service tools like wait time tracking. The stickers for first-time and “future voters” were designed by 9-year-old Nahla Albadri and 17-year-old Giovanni Ortega respectively.
“We handed out a lot of future voter stickers this year for people who I’m hoping, when they turn 18, will start voting,” said Clark.
Despite the showing being larger than expected, the self-described “election nerd” said the day went smoothly because her team was overprepared. That included extra tabulators at each site and backup batteries to keep them running in the event of a power outage.
“You know, essentially we are critical infrastructure,” she said. “And, no matter what, people have to be able to vote. That’s the most important thing.”
Meanwhile, in Bernalillo County, city councilors and school board members also appeared on ballots, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in general obligation bonds. However, only about 8.6% of eligible voters showed up to the polls on Election Day Tuesday. Just under 11% participated during the early voting period or by absentee ballot, according to county data.
Clerk Linda Stover described the turnout as “very low” to the Albuquerque Journal, adding that not breaking the 20% mark was “sad.”
Her office declined to comment “further” on the topic to KUNM until the results are certified. When asked about any previously-released statements on the topic, Spokesperson Kristal Peña said none were available for publication.
