Source NM talks with voters at the polls in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces
Santa Fe voters say they are ready for a new mayorShortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, a line of voters stretched out the door at the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds polling location. Poll worker Maria Dolores Lopez told Source NM she’d counted 164 voters within the first hour of the location opening.
“Good morning!” she said to everyone who entered the building. “Happy voting day!”
Her job as a greeter, she said, “is to smile at people and make them feel welcome.” As for the line out the door: “I’ve never seen that before,” she told Source.
While local elections typically draw much smaller numbers than those with national races, Tuesday’s eight-person Santa Fe mayoral election to succeed Alan Webber, who is not seeking a third term, had drawn a crowd—at least in one location.
Victor Saiz, 81, summed it up succinctly when asked what brought him out.
“I want a new mayor,” he said.
As of mid-morning Tuesday, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office reported 32,488 people statewide had voted on election day, with races in about half of the state’s 33 counties. With early and absentee ballots, that brings the total votes so far to 197,488, or approximately 14% of the state’s registered voters.
Voter turnout in the 2023 local elections hit approximately 20.5%, versus 69% for the presidential general election the following year.
In Santa Fe County, about 18% of registered voters had cast ballots by mid-morning. In addition to the mayoral race, Santa Fe has several city council and school board races, along with local bond and ballot measures.
Even without a national race, the political climate had been palpable on the campaign trail, mayoral candidate Oscar Rodriguez told Source.
“I’ve heard two sides,” said Rodriguez, during a stop at the fairgrounds, “and we’ll see today what the net effect is. One side is saying that they’re just burned out [with] all of this bad news. It makes people…feel they don’t want to hear anymore, and they don’t want to participate and that’s bad. But I’ve also heard on the other side, people who are very motivated because of what’s happening. That’s certainly been a big part of my message: It’s a month into the shutdown and the federal government retreating from economic development, from housing, health care, SNAP being cut off, so don’t you want to look to your local government and rally around your local government so you can least locally solve the problem that you need to have solved?”
While current Mayor Webber is not seeking re-election, his name surfaced among both candidates and voters at the fairgrounds.
Former longtime City Councilor Ron Trujillo, making his second mayoral bid, said basic infrastructure surfaced frequently as a topic on the campaign trail. “I think people are tired of Santa Fe not looking like a capital city,” he said. “I mean, everywhere you go” Cerrillos Road, Siringo Road, there’s weeds, there’s trash on the road. This is not how a capital city should look. And it’s not about tourism. It’s about those of us that call Santa Fe our home 24/7: We deserve to have a city that looks clean and that functions well.”
Voter Natasha Marsh-Lovato said she was casting her vote for mayoral candidate and current City Councilor Michael Garcia. “I like him as a city councilor,” she said. “I like the plan that he has. His 10-year plan is great: wanting to bring the life back into parks…and bring in some programs for the kids and for children that were taken away.”
Voter Stacey Foiles said she also had cast her ballot for Garcia. She moved here from Portland, Oregon, she said, where Webber also lived and worked for Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt.
“I didn’t like him there, so I was not surprised that I didn’t like him here,” Foiles said of Webber. “I think it’s really important in a place like Santa Fe that it not become a place where the people who settled it and who lived here even before Western settlers came can’t afford to live here anymore.”
Voter Jamie Aranda, author of the children’s book Zozo’s Adventure and the Flame of Hope, did not want to reveal her mayoral choice, but said she’d been engaged with local politics for a long time. “I think it’s really important for our community to be here and show up and vote. I’m multi-generational from Santa Fe, New Mexico, so I just want my voice to be heard,” she said.
Gregory Gutin arrived at the polls on bicycle, mildly breathless, with the same thought. “Everybody should vote right?” he said. “We have to take advantage of that,because it’s the one thing we can do to help create change and—you know—it’s also everybody coming together to decide who will be our leaders.”
Voters in Albuquerque are weighing in on whether Mayor Tim Keller should get an unprecedented third consecutive term in office. If he doesn’t get 50% of the vote when all Tuesday voters are tallied, he will join one of four opponents in a runoff that takes place Dec. 4.
In a recent public appearance, Keller suggested he thought the election Tuesday would lead to a runoff. He asked fellow members of the New Mexico State Fair District Board to schedule their next meeting in mid-December, because he’d be otherwise occupied until Dec. 4, he said.
His opponents are former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, former federal prosecutor Alexander Uballez, City Councilor Louie Sanchez, former Albuquerque Fire Chief Eddie Varela and former Sandoval County Deputy Manager Mayling Armijo.
Also on the ballot are school district races, seats on the local Soil and Water Conservation District Board and several City Council seats.
Three Albuquerque voters who spoke to Source New Mexico at two Downtown Albuquerque polling locations said they were motivated to have a say on local issues, especially amid federal chaos. As of publication, voter turnout in Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, was running at 21.5%.
“There’s a lot going on in the country, and I think there’s a lot of cruelty,” voter Radiance LaJeunesse told Source outside a polling place at Washington Middle School. “And even if it’s just a tiny little voice, I know I’m a part of that, and that I’m on the right side.”
She said she makes sure to encourage those in her life to vote in local elections and recently convinced her boyfriend to register for the first time. She likened voting for school board candidates and general obligation bonds to joining the recent nationwide No Kings protest, an act of resistance she also found inspiring.
While voter Florie Alise said she voted for Keller, she said voting to approve general obligation bonds was what compelled her to take time to vote Tuesday at the middle school.
She said she voted “mainly to maintain the financial support that agencies and government needs to advance,” she said. “I mean, the city needs money.”
She said she voted “yes” on every bond question to approve more than $160 million in bonds toward police, schools, homelessness and other issues.
Simonna Avalos joined a trickle of voters at the Hernan Sanchez Community Center in Albuquerque’s Barelas neighborhood on Tuesday morning. As a worker for the state Health Care Authority overseeing emergency food assistance payments, she said she’s seen first-hand how important state and local governments can be in the face of federal dysfunction.
But she said what most motivated her to cast a ballot Tuesday is that she’s a single mother whose son attends a nearby middle school.
“These are our local communities. These are our neighbors. These are our families,” she said.
—Patrick Lohmann
Las Cruces voters lined up inside the Doña Ana County Government Center Tuesday morning to cast their ballots in the local elections, which include several city council seats, Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education seats, a Doña Ana Soil & Water Conservation Board seat and several general obligation bond questions. Turnout as of publication was running at about 12%.
Other races on the ballot in the surrounding county communities include Mesilla, Anthony, Sunland Park and Hatch board of trustees or city council positions; Anthony and Hatch mayoral seats; Gadsden Independent School District and Hatch Valley Schools board positions; the Caballo Soil & Water Conservation District; and the Lower Rio Grande Public Water Works Authority.
Jamie Villagrana, a teacher at Monte Vista Elementary School in Las Cruces’ East Mesa, told Source New Mexico that the two school tax questions were the main motivating factors for her to vote Tuesday. The Las Cruces Public Schools General Obligation School Bond question proposes issuing up to $65 million in school bonds for school infrastructure construction and renovations, technology and matching funds for state-funded capital projects. The LCPS School Buildings Levy question proposes renewing the $3 levy per $1,000 of net taxable property value between 2026 and 2031 to support school capital improvements, technology, transportation and facility maintenance.
“We want everything. We need everything,” Villagrana, a 27-year educator, said.
Michelle Ramsey, a mother of two elementary students in Las Cruces, told Source that she voted against the two school bond questions because she does not like how the school system is currently operating.
“I need to protect my kids,” she said. “I’m a Godly woman so I want to go back to bringing God into school.”
James Moore, a 27-year resident of Las Cruces, told Source that he wasn’t motivated to vote because of any race or question in particular. “It’s all important,” he said.
Doña Ana County Chief Deputy Clerk Caroline Zamora told Source that polls in the 42 locations throughout the county were quiet Tuesday morning with no reported issues. She said that the nine secure containers in the county are available for people to drop off absentee ballots before 7 p.m.
She added that most of the calls her office has received about elections are about state races, which will not be held until November 2026.
Zamora said that at least one of the Las Cruces City Council races has a write-in candidate and because the council races are determined using ranked choice voting, the ballots will have to be adjudicated individually.
“For sure they’ll have first-round tonight. But depending on if that candidate makes it past the first round, we might not have the results for that until tomorrow,” Zamora said.
—Leah Romero
