Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
I don’t know what to conclude from looking at voter turnout statistics from the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office for the Nov. 5 local elections.
Quay County generated a turnout of 21 percent of registered voters — 1,219 voted out of 5,798 eligible. That’s just over one-in-five who voted.
It seems the lower the population of surrounding counties, the higher voter participation was on Nov. 5.
Guadalupe County to our west had a turnout of 33.4 percent — 1,088 voted out of 3,255 eligible. That’s a little better than one out of three.
Union County to our north recorded a turnout of 39.7 percent, as 965 of its 2,249 registered voters made a trip to the ballot box.
Harding County, our northwest neighbor and least populated county in the state, got 44.3 percent of its voters to turn in a ballot for the Nov. 5 election. That was the state’s highest turnout, representing 302 voters out 682 eligible.
Quay County’s better populated neighbors however, had lower turnouts than Quay’s rural neighbors.
Curry County, our highest population neighbor, only managed to get 11.8 percent — 2,585 out of 21,988 registered — to the polls for the Nov. 5 contests.
San Miguel County recorded a 17.9-percent turnout on Nov. 5. That’s 3,240 of their 18,094 registered voters.
Roosevelt County got only 12.2 percent of its voters to the polls, 1,191 of its 9,779 registered voters.
The only explanation that occurs to me is that people tend to be older in the rural counties, and older folks are better about voting.
The Nov. 5 election was the first in which nearly all of New Mexico’s local races were decided on the same day because of New Mexico Legislature action in 2018. Legislators hoped to reduce election costs and increase turnouts.
Local officials feared that bond issues, which were shoo-ins on customized election days, would have less chance of success if included on the comprehensive ballot, because voters would mistake them for tax increases.
In fact, the school districts in Tucumcari and Santa Rosa footed the bill for their own mail-in bond elections for the same day in March. Both succeeded.
In House and San Jon, however, school bond questions also passed easily on Nov. 5.
In Quay County, at least, the comprehensive balloting passed its first test. The 21.2 percent turnout surpassed the usual turnout for municipal elections, which County Clerk Ellen White said usually ranges from 10 percent to 15 percent, as low as 5 percent for school board elections.
Low turnouts in 2016 meant that as few as 22 signatures on petitions exceeded the 20 percent of the previous election’s turnout needed to force an unsuccessful recall election for three city commissioners in March 2017.
The effort, however, inspired Tucumcari city commissioners to require those who seek recalls to state a reason for the recall, which was not necessary in the past.
Better turnouts would also require recall efforts to be more compelling by requiring more signatures on petitions, and that could save as much as $6,000 per election.
Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a semi-retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at: