Few incidents, but Santa Fe poll workers remain on alert ahead of Election Day

Nov. 8—Out of sight.

But not out of mind.

Though balloting in Santa Fe County has largely been uneventful through the early voting period, Santa Fe-area election officials say they remain prepared for threats and potential outbursts when polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

County Clerk Katharine Clark said although there is a heightened sense of security across the nation's precincts due to multiple reports of violent threats toward poll workers, her focus has been to ensure election officials work through problems so voters can confidently cast their ballots.

"We're a little on alert because of all the poll worker threats," she said. "We've heard about them but haven't seen them. It is a little more intense this year. I will say this, post-COVID, there are definitely people who have forgotten how to act with others. People in general are angrier, and I think any election office can tell you that people are more frustrated, quicker to react negatively."

Working the polls on Election Day has always been a thankless job, sometimes slipping into the mundane. Those days are over. Threats across the country have put many on alert, and some who man the polls here say they've seen voters who become impatient or inquire whether their votes are safe. But compared to other states, tensions in New Mexico appear to be playing out more between parties and elected officials rather than at polling places.

Thirty-year-old Lysander Cramer is among the youngest of the poll workers at the downtown location in the county administrative building and said the concerns over democracy helped prompt him to work at the polls.

"I've been noticing the direction things are going on a couple of fronts as far as democracy is concerned," Cramer said. "It's definitely real, and it's a big part of why I was motivated to do this. There are definitely a lot of alarming stories coming from what I consider to be credible sources. Just the other day I was checking out some video of some lunatic with a gun hanging out by a ballot box in Arizona."

So far, Cramer said he has only had to deal with "the occasional snarky person who has some weird ideas about how the election works or who wants to quiz you on why we don't have voter ID and how we know their vote is secure," he said.

Still, the tensions have taken their toll.

At Santa Fe County's largest polling place, the County Fair Building on Rodeo Road, poll worker Rose Castellano said one colleague walked out due to fear of firearms and threats.

"He worked for a week, then quit," she said.

Clark said most people who struggle at the polls become upset because their name is misspelled and they cannot be readily located in the computer system.

"It's not that they're not registered. It's just that they [the poll worker] didn't quite get the spelling right or the computer is slow," she said. "They automatically assume that means they won't be able to vote, and they have a very strong reaction to that. I try to personally call them and say, 'Hey, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.' I think people are reactive after 2020. It was a very stressful year, and it does seem to be affecting people.

"My mom says it reminds her of '68, being a college student in Boston where there were all these protests for civil rights," Clark continued. "This feeling now reminds her of that. This unrest. It is a hard job right now. We have to make sure we are fighting misinformation. We don't know what's going to happen."

Santa Fe Republican Party Chairman Bob Graham said his party has initiated an educational campaign to help voters sift through accurate and misleading voting information. Most inquiries have been minor, often about procedures. "Some [presiding] judges appointed by the county clerk had issues with the challengers being there," he said. "I'd say things are going pretty smoothly."

Like Clark, Graham attributes a multitude of factors that are bringing stress to the polls.

"There has been a lot out there since 2020, accusations of cheating on ballots and miscounting. I read an email from someone who voted ... and they were frustrated because there's a lot of information out there that puts doubt in people's minds about how equipment is used," he said. "I think a lot of people are venting."

Graham said last year his party organized election integrity committees that served to explain the technical aspects of voting to constituents.

"We brought the county clerk in to talk with groups to explain the process and answer questions. I think it worked well. In our county, and this is especially true of conservatives, there are pockets of people frustrated and who don't really want to believe what's being presented," he said.

"Every time we've met as a regular party over the years, there's always someone in the room asking questions about the things they hear or see on social media," Graham continued. "We do our best to help them understand how some of what they've heard is just not possible to happen. Then we say, 'Let's make you a [poll] challenger, and you can go watch yourself.' "

The state Republican Party has been training poll watchers and challengers in the state's 33 counties, and on Friday, GOP Chairman Steve Pearce took to Twitter, criticizing Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver's statements last week that poll challengers and watchers in this year's midterms could prove to be disruptive to the voting process.

"The Republican Party of New Mexico has consistently promoted fair and honest elections and has been training our own poll watchers and challengers in all 33 counties," Pearce wrote. "These workers have always been instructed to take any dispute or possible violation at the polls to our legal team."

Challengers are appointed by parties and are allowed to post one challenger at each polling place, Clark said. Challengers cannot see personal information on ballots but are allowed to observe ballot casting and take notes. There are 49 Republican and 28 Democratic challengers in Santa Fe County alone.