County clerk adds 6 voting centers after complaints

Commission earlier questioned decision to reduce locations to only 24 sites

A week after several Santa Fe County commissioners expressed concern about the number of polling places to be used in next year’s primary and general elections, the county clerk on Monday added six more voting convenience centers, bringing to 30 the number of locations where county residents will be able to cast ballots.

Added to the previous county-approved list of two dozen voting sites across the 1,900-square-mile county are the Benny J. Chavez Community Center in Chimayó, the El Rancho Senior Center, the Nambe Pueblo tribal administrative office, Tesuque Elementary School, the county fire station in La Tierra and the Galisteo Community Center.

In the county’s September special election on a possible gross receipts tax hike, the La Tierra fire station drew the seventh-most votes of the 28 voting centers with 307; Tesuque Elementary School had only 95 voters and the Benny J. Chavez Community Center was tied for the second lowest turnout, with only 22 votes cast.

The El Rancho Senior Center and Nambe tribal office were not used in that election; only 8 percent of the county’s registered voters turned out in total.

Each of the 30 polling places in 2018 will be a voting convenience center within a consolidated precinct, meaning any registered county voter can cast a ballot at any of the locations, no matter the voter’s precinct.

County Clerk Geraldine Salazar said last week the voting convenience centers were preferable to the older system for primaries and general elections because they allow

voters from any of the county’s 90-plus precincts flexibility in where they cast ballots. The 24 locations were strategically located for convenience and accessibility, she said, adding her staff also used internet service, turnout level and parking availability as criteria.

But commissioners at the Oct. 31 board meeting were skeptical of shrinking the number of overall places to vote in spite of the convenience factor, saying fewer polling places would force some rural residents to travel farther to vote and might confuse some voters who had come to expect they could only vote at one particular place.

The list of 24 voting centers passed 3-2, with Commissioners Robert Anaya and Henry Roybal in the minority.

But Salazar took commissioners’ suggestions for additional convenience centers into account and suggested the six additional sites, which commissioners approved 3-0 at a special board meeting Monday before the deadline under state statute to designate polling places ahead of an election year. Anaya and Commissioner Ed Moreno were not present.

“It seems to me those [new convenience centers] hit areas we thought were potential holes,” Commissioner Anna Hamilton said.