Alex Curtas

With AI tools more readily available than ever before, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office has been working to head off election disinformation that may be hard to spot. It hasn't seen any so far this season.

Voting in the 2024 general election has begun in New Mexico, where early in-person voting is underway and absentee ballots are being sent out to those who requested them. For the first time, thousands of voters will find a ballot in their mailbox even though they did not submit a new application for this election.

This is the first year that New Mexicans can choose to receive an absentee ballot for every election. Previously, they had to submit a new request each time. However, the online application is not yet available.

Election Day has come and gone for New Mexico and one race in particular is too close to call––the heavily contested Congressional District 2. Alex Curtas, spokesperson for the Secretary of State's office, joined KUNM Wednesday morning to chat about when we might see those results, what voter turnout looked like, and how election night went in general.

Election Day is upon us, and polls will open Tuesday starting at 7 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m.

Threats against election officials are on this rise in the U.S., just before a crucial midterm election that will decide which political party has control of Congress. Those threats are now pushing New Mexico’s Secretary of State to conduct Tuesday's election “off-site” for safety concerns.

On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico, we’ll discuss voters and voting. We’ll talk over the latest numbers for early and absentee voting and discuss what we can glean about voting trends through early voting, demographic changes in our region and what kinds of voting policies and voter education could help foster a stronger democracy.

In-person early voting for November elections begins October 11 in New Mexico. That’s also the first day absentee ballots can be mailed to voters who may be unwilling or unable to vote in person. KUNM spoke with the Secretary of State’s office about options for getting your ballot counted.

On June 7th, primary elections were held in New Mexico amid national concerns of low voter confidence and constant, false allegations of election fraud. Now, officials are saying voter turnout was low, but not as bad as the state's last primary election in 2018.

With New Mexico’s 2022 primary election coming up next week, the Secretary of State’s Office Tuesday launched a website dedicated to fact-checking misinformation.