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BERNALILLO — Sandoval County’s election process started with early voting Oct. 8, and along with it a study of how it works.
Florida State University Professor Lana Atkinson and Professor Wendy Hansen with the University of New Mexico as well as several political science students will observe the election up close and from afar.
“I’m very excited to be here to talk to you about our election study that we’re focusing here on Sandoval County, New Mexico, for the first time,” Atkinson said in a presentation at the Sandoval County Commission Oct. 9.
Atkinson has written about New Mexico elections since 1998 and studied them since 2006. New Mexico is the only state that allows academics to observe the election. She looked at several factors of Sandoval County elections, including voter turnout and registration from 2000-22, which was the last local election. According to her numbers, the 2020 election had the largest turnout with 76,806 voters from the county casting ballots. However, 2024 may break that record as the first day of early voting had more than 1,000 voters cast their ballot.
Voter registration has been on a steady incline since 2000, reaching an all-time high of a little more than 105,000 registrants this year. Looking at party registration over time, Sandoval County has remained steady with Democrats and Republicans composing nearly equal parts. This is why Atkinson, Hansen and the students are studying it.
“It’s a really interesting county. It’s a competitive county; it has an interesting mix of rural and urban areas. All these things, of course, you know very well. It has several Indian tribes and the staff here, the county clerk, and the deputy clerk are really trying hard to increase access to those voters and have increased service to those voters, opening vote centers there,” she said.
She added that with the increase in population, interest in the county election process is greater. She attributed much of that increase to Rio Rancho’s growth, mentioning the city had received recognition as the fastest-growing city in the country before.
“We need to have good data that allows us to have a conversation about what happened last time in the election. So we can say, ‘What do we need to do to do better next time?’ And only if we’re collecting that data can we make those kinds of decisions about how to change our system or how to improve it,” she said.
She referred to improvements like better training for poll workers, line flow and additional resources for voters. Though, she said, the county clerk and her staff have been good about those things already.
What sets this study apart from poll watchers and challengers is that the observers in charge of it are nonpartisan.
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“They do play an important role in critiquing or being there and observing the process as well. But they are very partisan, and it’s important to distinguish between partisan observers and nonpartisan observers like ourselves who are not interested in who wins the elections or not,” she said.
“We don’t care who wins the election. We’re involved in gathering information. We’re not there to intervene in the process or anything, we’re not challenging anyone. We’re there just to collect data. So that’s very different from, say, election monitors who might actually be there to intervene in the process if they see something is going wrong. Our role is just to watch, take notes and then report back so that we can improve the election for next time.”
The main reason for observing the election is the concern with security, according to Atkinson.
“The human dimension of security is really important. It’s fundamental to any security process, and so election observers play that role. County clerks and their staff are really, really busy during the election, and they cannot be the kind of eyes and ears that election observers can be about what is happening and for that, it provides an opportunity for cover, always something goes wrong in the election, but if you have someone standing behind you collecting data, you can always point to them and say, ‘We know that happened but we’re going to do better next time,’” Atkinson said.
Sandoval County has a history of lack of trust in the integrity of the election. One group frequents the county commission meetings to address the commissioners in public comment about election integrity.
“We want to improve integrity of the elections, where we want to have a process in which voters can be proud and feel that there has been an election that is fair,” Atkinson said.
She says every good thing done in the election process helps voters feel secure.
“What improves voter confidence? Well, nearly every good thing that you do, every good thing that your poll workers and your staff does improves their confidence. Helpful and friendly poll workers, privacy sleeves for your ballot, parking, availability, shorter lines ... all of these help to improve voter confidence,” she said.
Voter confidence is fairly average in Sandoval County compared to other counties. Since 2006, when Atkinson started the studies, confidence has significantly improved.
“Now we have ballot on demand, we have all kinds of great technology. I can tell you from being in the trenches for 25 years that we have a much better election system. Our election system is very strong,” she said.
After her presentation, Commissioner Jay Block asked if she looked at voter ID and if it improves voter confidence. She confirmed that it did.
For more information on voting locally, visit sos.nm.gov or sandovalcounty.gov/bureauofelections.
