Early voting ends this week

After months of campaigning, we are in the closing stretch of the 2018 Santa Fe municipal election. Phew. For candidates, supporters and even just plain ol’ voters, it is has been a long haul, with forums, debates, opinion pieces in the newspapers and door-to-door visits to seek support for yourself or your chosen candidate. Politics at the local level is hard work, plain and simple.

Soon, the verdict will be in, not just on who will serve as Santa Fe’s first “strong” mayor and be selected for the council — four seats are on the ballot — but citizens will see how the ranked-choice voting system will work (or not).

Under the system, voters have the opportunity to select more than one choice in races with more than two candidates, ranking their selections from top to bottom. It’s an instant runoff, with the goal that the eventual winner has broad support. No one wins without 50 percent plus one vote. That can work out a number of ways. For example, if the top vote-getter in the first round of counting eventually loses the race, the comefrom-behind winner still would have many fans — she or he, after all, must be the second- and third-place choices of many voters.

To vote, simply fill in the ovals, ranking your choices as deep as you desire. There are five candidates for mayor, giving voters the opportunity even to fill in an oval by the name of the person they least want to see in the office. Two City Council districts — 2 and 4 — have more than two candidates, so voters can rank their choices there as well. The voting, we think, is fairly simple to understand. We’re curious about how the counting will go — as tabulation proceeds, the candidate with the least number of votes drops out. His or her second-place votes are redistributed, and so on, until a winner emerges. We trust that things will go smoothly — rankedchoice voting, not just the candidates, will either win or lose on election day.

For now, early voting continues until Friday, March 2, and we encourage people to get out and vote so that there are fewer lines on election day proper. With full houses at forums and vigorous debate in the newspapers, it appears that citizens are interested in who will be serving not just as mayor but also on the City Council. That should mean a healthy turnout, which could translate into lines at the polls. The more people who vote early, the lesser chance of long lines.

There are two locations for early voting. Either visit the Office of the City Clerk, Room 215, City Hall, 200 Lincoln Ave., from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday, when early voting ends, or go to the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, 3221 Rodeo Road, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday this week.

If you love voting on election day, remember that this year, the city will have voter convenience centers. That means a voter can stop by a polling place that is most convenient to him or her, whether by a place of work or a residence. Twelve such centers will be located around town, open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on March 6, election day.

This is the election different for the City Different. In local elections, a few votes can swing the outcome. Take time to vote — whether this week or on March 6.