Election day is almost upon us. The debates are over and the candidates have made their pitches. Now the decision is up to you the voter. We’ve got an in-depth look at the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, as well as an amendment that would mandate a salary for state legislators.
- Reporter Mary Lou Cooper spoke with pollster Brian Sanderoff to get an idea of how some of the key races are shaping up.
- The major party candidates for governor, Democrat Deb Haaland and Republican Greg Hull, align on some issues, but when it comes to one of the most controversial issues—regulations for AI data centers—the two couldn’t be further apart.
- Haaland and Hull also differ on the key issues they would focus on. Hull announced his plan to incrementally eliminate New Mexico’s state income tax at a press conference in early October. Haaland told the Albuquerque Journal that she supports tax reform but not “across-the-board cuts.”
- For her part, Haaland is more focused on protecting immigrant communities.
Haaland spent her Labor Day weekend speaking to supporters around Northern New Mexico. That included a stop at the KTAOS Solar Center in Taos where Haaland detailed some of her policy objectives including more transparency for Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the state. - Haaland and Hull also have very different ideas about a constitutional amendment that would mandate legislator salaries. They both both spoke about the amendment on the latest episode of The Forum on KSFR.
- Haaland and Hull couldn’t agree on a time and place to debate. Hull wound up standing next to an empty podium during one of the proposed dates on KOB-TV. The candidates for lieutenant governor, Democrat Stephanie Garcia Richard and Republican David Gallegos, however, did debate in late September. The candidates answered questions from KOB and Albuquerque Journal reporters and even questioned each other.
- The debate between the two candidates for New Mexico’s 2nd House district was heated at times. The outcome could factor into which party controls the House. Incumbent Democrat Gabe Vasquez is facing Republican challenger Greg Cunningham.
There's one more thing that's important to address- the safety and security of the voting process. Some voters have expressed concerns about immigration officers showing up at polling places. The Trump administration has said it has no plans to deploy agents to voting sites, but it wouldn't rule out sending officers to polling places under certain circumstances. But New Mexico officials seem prepared.
On the transparency front, every single one of these processes are open to the public. These are not done behind closed doors.New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse-Oliver
The state's attorney general and secretary of state issued a joint advisory earlier this month reminding voters that law enforcement is generally prohibited from entering a polling place. Still, there were reports from several states of federal law enforcement inside or near polling sites during this year's primaries.
And Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed S.B. 264 into law this year. That state law created civil and criminal penalties for any federal agent who interferes with the election process. The confusion about federal and state jurisdiction over elections has been coupled with a growing distrust of election officials in recent years.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse-Oliver shared some information about election security at a roundtable before this year's primaries.
"I'm proud to point out New Mexico currently ranks number one in MIT's election performance index. It's the only ranking of its kind that looks at election administration across the country, and it uses a variety of performance indicators that measure aspects of election administration, such as voter registration rates, ballot rejection rates, security protocols and more."
At the roundtable, Toulouse-Oliver also pulled back the curtain a bit regarding how ballots are counted.
"The first thing folks should know is that there is a ton of work that goes into the process of ensuring an accurate count on election night, the unofficial results that we post. County clerks and their teams are working all day long, and in the days leading up to election day, to process as many absentee ballots as they can, and then to process all the early voting results on election day."
Toulouse Oliver went on to detail the process of counting election day votes and the internal and external audits that happen after precincts close.
"On the transparency front, every single one of these processes are open to the public. These are not done behind closed doors. These are all publicly viewable processes, and so I think it's really important for folks to know that all of these different steps take place in a public sphere."
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