Voter turnout higher than other recent gubernatorial primaries

New Mexicans turned out to vote in higher numbers than in the last couple of gubernatorial primary elections.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said Thursday that 261,615 voters cast ballots in the election that concluded Tuesday.

That is up from the 202,327 voters who participated in the 2014 primary election and the 258,614 who voted in 2010.

Still, under New Mexico’s closed primary system, only voters registered as Democrats, Republicans or Libertarians could participate. In turn, voters registered as independents or with smaller political parties — roughly 1 in 4 New Mexico voters — cannot vote in primary elections.

Democrats turned out in the largest numbers, likely spurred on by a competitive, three-way race for governor, fiery legislative primaries and a race for Congress that could lead to the election of the first Native American woman to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Around the state, 178,198 cast ballots, or nearly 32 percent of registered Democrats. About 1 in 3 of those votes came from Bernalillo County. But counties in the north had higher rates of turnout among Democratic voters. In Santa Fe County, for example, 41 percent of registered Democrats cast ballots, or 25,313 people. Turnout hit 42 percent of registered Democrats in Rio Arriba County.

Meanwhile, only 24 percent of registered Democrats voted in Doña Ana County, which is the state’s secondlargest county and home to several statewide candidates, including Sen. Joseph Cervantes, who ran for the party’s gubernatorial nomination.

U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham ended up getting the party’s nod with about 2 in 3 votes.

About 22 percent of registered Republicans, or 82,567, cast ballots, with perhaps the most competitive race in Southern New Mexico, where members

of the GOP squared off for the nomination to run for a congressional seat. But only one Republican, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, ran for the party’s gubernatorial nomination. And there was little competition for other major offices.

The Libertarian Party also qualified as a major party in New Mexico this year, holding a primary election for the first time.

Around the state, 850 Libertarians cast ballots, or about 10 percent of those registered.

A number of the party’s candidates — from U.S. Senate to Congress — appeared unopposed on the primary ballot. But its lone candidate for governor, Bob Walsh, sought to qualify for a spot on the general election by getting 230 write-in votes on the primary ballot. It might remain unclear whether he received enough signatures until the results are finalized later this month.