I can’t think of more boring volunteer work, but if it helps restore faith in the voting process, what’s the harm?
Members of the Journal Editorial Board met last week with a leader and board member of Observe New Mexico Elections, a group that recently started watching the election process that is underway now. The group started observing voting during last year’s presidential elections and determined that the election was “generally well-run,” according to Carmen Lopez, one of the group’s co-leaders. New Mexico ranked No. 1 during the 2022 midterm elections in an Elections Performance Index determined by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Restoring faith in the Democratic process is needed. We don’t need to rehash all the political violence that we’ve seen locally and nationally in recent years — orchestrated shootings against local Democratic leaders’ homes, the firebombing vandalism of the state’s Republican Party headquarters, the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
So what’s the harm in having a group, which says it is nonpartisan on its website, take a look at the nitty gritty of casting a ballot and make recommendations for improvement?
“I wanted to jump and do this as a former Republican chair … in part to help Republicans. This is my kind of selfish side, to show Republicans in New Mexico that our elections are pretty well-done here,” Ryan Cangiolosi, an Observe New Mexico Elections board member, told us.
Cangiolosi may want to help reassure GOP voters in New Mexico that their votes are being counted, but Democratic voters in Otero or San Juan counties should also rest easy knowing that the process of counting their votes is secure.
Lopez said the volunteers who spread out to observe elections won’t disturb the process.
“Don’t help, don’t intervene, don’t criticize, just watch and know what happens,” she said of their jobs.
The Secretary of State’s Office allows the practice as long as the person is properly authorized, and there are rules against observers disrupting the process.
Observe New Mexico Elections fanned out 160 volunteers in 29 counties on Election Day in 2024, and in 24 counties during early voting, in addition to watching poll-worker training and voting machines being tested for accuracy.
The result?
“ONME’s observation findings indicate that all votes were counted, the polls opened and closed on time, registered voters did not face long lines, equipment functioned properly, voting privacy was maintained, voters did not encounter intimidation or electioneering, and elections were certified,” according to the executive summary of the election.
Lopez did share one observation that is worth thinking about as we get closer to Election Day: Same-day voter registration, which was used in the 2024 election in New Mexico for the first time, can add time to the voting day process.
“There were hiccups there,” Lopez said. “Same-day registration was rough in some parts of the state.”
Hiccups essentially meant long lines. I reached out to the Secretary of State’s Office last week. Alex Curtas, a spokesperson, said the office has had a “great working relationship” with ONME.
He said the office made some adjustments to the same-day registration process after last year’s election.
“We did work to mitigate what caused some slowness on the system,” he said.
I flagged that information for upcoming voters, because your address needs to be updated and accurate. In this election, the control of city councils and school boards are up for grabs, and your address needs to be current to ensure you’re voting in the correct race. You can take advantage of updating your registration if needed at any voting site on Election Day or during early voting, Curtas said.
We’ve devoted much of the Opinion section space in recent weeks to op-eds about the upcoming election, and we have a page devoted to the topic today. So it’s important to remind voters that as you compare and contrast the candidates to decide who best deserves your vote, know that the evidence indicates your vote will be counted correctly, no matter which box you check.
Click here to read the full article by Ryan Boetel from The Albuquerque Journal.