More New Mexico voters can participate in the June 2nd primary election, now that it is "semi-open". Chief Deputy Doña Ana County Clerk Caroline Zamora explains what that means and shares other important information with KC Counts. Here's a transcript of their conversation:
KC Counts:
Early voting is underway, of course, and it's going to be expanding soon. Why don't we talk about what's happening right now, those early numbers in terms of whatever you can share with us regarding early voting? Has it been brisk?
Caroline Zamora:
So I can tell you it's been steady. We unfortunately don't see a huge high turnout during a primary, which we always want higher numbers. And so that I can tell you. And so if you want to go vote, early voting started; and so check out our website, DAC Elections.com, for all the information about open hours and things like that.
KC Counts:
Lots of important things to know. First, is it too late to register?
Caroline Zamora:
No, you want to know why, because New Mexico has an absolutely wonderful thing called same-day registration. And so if you, and again, this is a new semi-open primary, which I know we're going to talk about, but if you are a Democrat or Republican, you're going to have to stick with that party. You would have had to have changed that by May 5th. And so it's too late to go ahead and change your party affiliation. But if you're a Green Party or a Libertarian, which are qualified minor parties, you can use same-day registration to change your party to either a Democrat, Republican, or decline to state. And new this year, which I know we're going to talk about even more, which is the decline to state. We sometimes call those independents here in New Mexico who can now vote in our semi-open primary elections. And so they can either choose to vote on a Democratic or Republican ballot.
KC Counts:
I think one of the confusing things is that independents are a party, right? The independent party, right?
Caroline Zamora:
Exactly. And so that's what makes it confusing. Here in New Mexico, independent party is not a qualified party. And so that's why here in New Mexico, we call them decline to state. or unaffiliated. That means they don't want to be affiliated with any party. So declined to state mean they don't want to state a party or unaffiliated is another way to think about that.
KC Counts:
Okay, so those folks can now vote, and that is what is new now in the primary by choosing either the Republican or Democratic Party to vote in, right?
Caroline Zamora:
Exactly. And so what's going to happen now is if you're a declined to state or unaffiliated voter, you don't have to change your party. You just walk into your voting location and say, I'd like to vote on either a Democrat ballot or a Republican ballot. And you'll get to vote. And you don't have to change your party. You don't have to change your voter registration, anything like that.
KC Counts:
Okay, nothing changes. All right. But if you are already registered as a Republican or Democrat, that's the party you'll be voting on.
Caroline Zamora:
Exactly. You're going to have to stay in your lane. That's the lane you chose, and you're going to have to stay in that lane.
KC Counts:
All right, so what are some other important things for people to know about registration to vote in general? You can still register and vote.
Caroline Zamora:
Absolutely. So right now, as long as, let's say you're one of those qualified minor parties. The Green Party, the Libertarian Party are our qualified minor parties. So if you're one of those and you'd still like to vote in this election, you can come in, use same-day registration, and change your party affiliation to either Democrat, Republican, or decline to state, and you'll be able to vote.
KC Counts:
So what are some of the questions you're getting and some of the things people are having a difficulty with this year?
Caroline Zamora:
You know what? I think this year the biggest thing is that those declined to state voters, which is a big number of them here in Doña Ana County, they just don't know that they get to vote now in the primary. And I don't know if people know this, but here in Doña Ana County, there are actually more registered declined to state voters than there are Republican voters. And so it's interesting, I personally really like this new law because we had so many declined estate voters who now get an opportunity to vote in a primary. And if you think about that from not only a voter and inclusion perspective, but also These were taxpayers who were paying for an election that they didn't get to participate in. And now this just increases participation. And that always helps a community.
KC Counts:
Any chance that we might see sometime soon a fully open primary in New Mexico?
Caroline Zamora:
Oh gosh, can I tell you it took years for this to happen, to get semi-open primaries. If that happens, it's going to take years, KC.
KC Counts:
Not surprising to hear. All right, so let's talk a little bit about some of the things that are going to be coming up that people need to know in terms of the larger landscape of early voting opportunities and election day itself.
Caroline Zamora:
So voters can, if you're ready to vote and you have some time, head over to the county building because early voting started on May 5th at the Doña Ana County Government Center. And that is Monday through Fridays, 8 A.m. to 5 P.m. and also on Saturday, May 30th from 10 A.m. to 6 P.m. And what's great also about New Mexico is, you know, we are so voter friendly and we have additional early voting sites that open up on May 16th, and those will be open from May 16th through May 30th, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 A.m. to 7 P.m., closed on Sundays, and then also closed on May 25th, which is the holiday, and also closed on June 1st. And this is what I think is really important for folks to know because election day is June 2nd, 7 A.m. to 7 P.m. And so we close on May 30th and it basically gives our team two days to reset everything for the big election.
KC Counts:
Well, and rest up.
Caroline Zamora:
And rest up a little bit and then get.
KC Counts:
Those could go pretty long into the night. I think at whatever point they decided to go ahead and stop at 11 P.m. That was a good, it was a good choice.
Caroline Zamora:
I agree. Can I tell you, they're long days, KC. They're really
long. You know, our election officials get there by 6 A.m., they're going until 8 or 9 at night. And then if you're in the absentee, on the absentee board out there counting and you're going until 11, that's, you know, a 16-hour day.
KC Counts:
Let's talk a little bit about those volunteers.
Caroline Zamora:
Absolutely.
KC Counts:
That come out to help make the election process smooth for everyone.
Caroline Zamora:
Yes, and you know one of the things that we always talk about in our office is that election officials are our community members and they really make elections work. If you think about this, KC, there's only 38 staff members in our office. There are 42 election day sites. So we don't run this all by ourselves. We absolutely need the help of the community and election officials to help us out. So if you're interested in becoming an election official, go to the DACElections.com. And you can go ahead and talk to our staff about that. Also, what's great about being an election official here in the state of New Mexico is it's paid. And so if you'd like to work early voting, you know, there's about a month of early voting, 28 days of early voting. And then there's also election day. And what's also great about election day is our young people can participate. So if you're under the age of 18, you're 16 or 17 and you'd like to work the election, you just need mom or dad to sign sign off on, sign a waiver that says you can go ahead and work. And we actually have at Centennial High School, there's a teacher, a history teacher, who she brings us about 20 to 40 students every year who come and work the election for us. And I really love seeing that, just that civic engagement of young people.
KC Counts:
Is it too late for someone who needs an absentee ballot?
Caroline Zamora:
No, it's not too late. I love that question, especially now because we also have the permanent absentee list going on now. But the last day to apply for your absentee ballot is May 19th. And also, if you'd like to apply to be on the permanent absentee list, and that just means every election like clockwork, you will get your absentee ballot mailed to you.
KC Counts:
Now, what if I die? Will you know, and will you remove me from the voter rolls?
Caroline Zamora:
I love getting this question, KC.
KC Counts:
Or can I still vote after I'm dead?
Caroline Zamora:
You know what? We have a really great system here in New Mexico. We work with DOH. to the Department of Health to make sure that those who have deceased, we're taking them off. Also, there is some onus on the family members to also let us know. We do hear from a lot of family members who will send us a death certificate just letting them know, you know, my husband or my wife passed away. We also have staff who's dedicated to checking obituaries, the local surrounding obituaries also daily. And so those are some ways that we do keep our motor rolls clean.
KC Counts:
Let's talk a little bit about New Mexico's elections in general, accolades from MIT for being the best in the country. What steps does New Mexico take to ensure that its elections are, say, fraud-free?
Caroline Zamora:
You know what, KC, I love that you asked this question. We really do the gold standard of election. The primary gold standard I want to assure everyone is that we do have paper ballots. I don't know, the last time you voted, KC, the last time I voted, I, marked, I hand marked myself, not machine marked, it was me who marked it, hand marked paper ballot. And that is the gold standard. And so at any time, if we have to retabulate an entire election, we can do that because we have those paper ballots. And that's really important. And again, the gold standard.
KC Counts:
And when you look into those smaller elections and smaller communities, sometimes those races do take recounts. And sometimes they're only separated by a few votes.
Caroline Zamora:
You know, I've heard, and I wasn't here for that election. This was years ago. There was a race in Mesilla that was decided by 4 votes. And so in small municipalities, it can come within a few of those.
KC Counts:
And then they get to play poker, right? To decide the winner. All kinds of fun, crazy laws.
Caroline Zamora:
I'm trying to think up north in, I want to say, maybe it's like Rio Arriba County or something like that. It was, I want to say a coin flip because it was an actual tie. Yeah.
KC Counts:
Well, let's talk a little bit about other ways kids are getting engaged in voting.
Caroline Zamora:
Absolutely. I really love what our office does. And we've done this very, very fun been engaging these past few years, and we have the tiny ballot bash. And what that is, that folks can bring their kids to vote with them, which I think is also really important. You know, I got to grow up going with my parents to vote, and I think it's what's turned me into a lifelong voter. But kids can come with you to the Doña County Government Center. We have some coloring books for them. We also have special stickers that say future voter. We have some that are kind of comic book, and then we have some that have been designed by kids. And then we also have some tiny ballot bash ballots. And so, they can vote on their favorite ice cream. And so we have that going on. And again, this is during early voting. They're at the government center. So if you'd like to make it a family event, and we hope that you do, again, make those lifelong voters, we hope that you do that. And it also gets parents out to vote too.
KC Counts:
You mentioned DAC elections.com. So for our listeners who are not in Doña Ana County and invote.org, a place where you can go to kind of start that process, check your registration, learn about our new semi-open primary and a whole lot more.
Caroline Zamora:
Yeah, and invote.org has so much information there. You can check out your voter history. You know, you put in your information, your voter history comes up, your locations, which races you can look at your sample ballot. You can, that's where you would apply for an absentee ballot. For our federal overseas voters, you know, those we call them UOCAVA voters. They know who they are. They're either military or civilian overseas, and they go to FVAP.org. And so again, NMVote.org or FVAP.org if you're a federal overseas voter. Or if you just like to learn more about the current election, the 42 election day sites, the 9 early voting sites, and of course, the Doña Ana County Government Center, early voting center, and you get all the dates and information. Also, all the locations for the secured containers. And those are for folks who would like to drop off their absentee ballots. There are nine secured containers throughout Dona Ana County. And KC, those are secure. Let me tell you, they have weather monitoring on them. They're 24-hour monitored. These are more secure than your regular post office box. Let me just tell you. So you can all go to DACElections.com to check out all those locations.
KC Counts:
Showing up on election day, I don't why would I get turned away?
Caroline Zamora:
Oh, no electioneering within 100 feet of a location. And electioneering can mean a lot of things. So no items with a candidate's name. That can be worn material, t-shirts, pins, hats, anything like that. Nothing with the candidate's name on it.
KC Counts:
No guns this year, right? I don't know that that's been an issue in the past.
Caroline Zamora:
Not here in Doña Ana County, because so many of our locations are at schools, many almost already places where you would be, where you could not have a gun.
KC Counts:
Anything else new that people need to know?
Caroline Zamora:
I think we covered it all.
KC Counts:
And if we didn't, it's on all those places that you just told us about where you could go find all that information.
Caroline Zamora:
And you know what? I really have to shout out to my team, our socials. We do such a great job at putting out information. We really are the best in the state at putting out as much information as possible for voters. So follow us on Facebook, on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on YouTube. Check out all those things because we're putting out a lot of information for voters.
KC Counts:
Okay. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us about it, Caroline. We appreciate it.
Caroline Zamora:
Thank you. I appreciate you all and everything you all do.
