Voters in New Mexico are turning out today to vote in primary elections for U.S. Senator, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and a slew of other national, state, and local offices. We stopped by the Santa Fe South Side Library to see what issues brought people out for this midterm primary.
Nancy Nickel: Democracy, I think, is under threat. I'm just really, really disturbed by how the government's being run at the federal level. So I'm voting for the Democrat party and happy to have the opportunity to do that.
Although this is a midterm election, the federal executive branch was a motivating factor for Charlie Fry, as well.
Charlie Fry: The most important issue, actually, is Trump threatening New Mexico. I'm not a person who is concerned terribly about the number of immigrants or supposed illegal people in our state, and I appreciate, actually, that they are here. And I don't want them to be threatened.
Jeff and Anita Hett had a broader laundry list of issues that brought them to the polls.
Jeff Hett: Everything—gas, groceries, the economy, invading countries that we shouldn't be invading.
Anita Hett: And LGBT rights.
Heather Lacey works for a local music nonprofit and has personally felt the pinch of federal funding cuts.
Heather Lacey: Last year the organization I work for had a large grant canceled by the current administration. Not that any of that is on today's ballot, but everything matters.
For others local and statewide legislation were more important.
Lily: The houseless population and how they're treated, that's really important to me. Creating programs that actually help instead of criminalizing it. Also, the roads in Santa Fe County could be better, so that's something I look at too.
I don't know that I 100 percent believe that voting matters, but I know that I'm not going to miss it, just in case it does. People died for me to be able to vote, I'm not going to just throw that away.
Polls around the state will be open until 7pm tonight.
