Given issues, ‘high’ election turnout sad
It’s good news that, based on unofficial numbers, 22,000 more people cast ballots in this year’s Albuquerque mayoral race than they did four years ago, making it one of the top voter turnouts on record for a city election.
But before you pop the champagne corks and unleash the celebratory balloons to mark better-than-usual participation in this democratic exercise of self-governance, consider this: Despite what pollster Brian Sanderoff charitably describes as a “colorful” mayoral contest, where crime dominated the debate, along with a highly controversial $50 million soccer stadium bond question, only about 32% of registered city voters took the time to make their wishes known at the ballot box.
That’s correct. While Sanderoff says that, based on unofficial raw numbers, this may be the highest turnout ever for a mayor’s race — the Secretary of State website lists 119,745 votes this year compared with 97,399 in 2017 — fewer than one in three registered voters cast ballots.
City Clerk Ethan Watson chose to look at the glass one-third full instead of two-thirds empty. “We’re thrilled by the historic turnout in this election, and it speaks to the importance of engaging in our local democratic processes,” he said, crediting Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover’s office for a smooth operation.
Voting was for the most part incredibly easy. But there are changes that could make it even better. For one, add staff and equipment at our busiest voting sites and/or notify those in long lines of other polling sites with shorter lines. Also, add an express lane for handicapped and senior voters — voters with canes and walkers should not have been standing 150-people deep in Tuesday’s line. That is unacceptable and undemocratic. Overall, it was incredibly easy to register and vote. Limited in-person voting began Oct. 5 at the county clerk’s annex. The county clerk mailed out thousands of absentee ballots weeks before the election. Widespread early voting was available at 20 locations from Oct. 16 through Oct. 30 — at strip malls, community centers and the University of New Mexico. Same-day registration was possible at early voting centers (though not on Election Day, Nov. 2), not to mention that voters for the most part are registered just by getting or renewing a driver’s license.
So, yes, it’s a good thing that more than 119,000 people cast ballots. But we are still far short of the level of participation we should have, especially in a city facing serious public safety challenges, and with hundreds of millions of dollars in city and school issues on the ballot. The county and state have done so much to make it easy to vote. At some point, it’s up to all of us to actually take an active role in governing ourselves.