Senate endorses bill to open primary elections

Feb. 20—Independent voters would no longer have to sit out primary elections under a bill the Senate approved Monday.

Senate Bill 73, which now heads to the House for consideration, would allow unaffiliated voters to select a major party ballot and vote in a primary election without having to change their registration status.

Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, an Albuquerque Democrat, joined nine Senate Republicans voting against the measure, saying it takes responsibility out of voting.

"I just see this as a kind of Generation X kind of thing where we don't really want to have any responsibilities for helping to raise money for a candidate or work for the candidate or the party. We don't want to have to make phone calls for the party. We don't have to want to do anything but just show up and vote," he said.

"The primaries are for helping the parties decide who their candidates are going to be, and if you let a whole bunch of people who aren't part of the party in, I think you just basically sound the death knell for the two-party system," he added.

Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, said primaries allow parties to pick the candidates they want to represent them on the ballot in a general election.

"If ... you don't belong to that party, should you really be allowed to pick who's representing that party?" he asked.

Sen. Bill O'Neill, D-Albuquerque, who sponsored the bill with Sen. Siah Correa Hemphill, D-Silver City, and Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil, D-Albuquerque, said the bill would increase voter turnout.

"Our last primary election saw a whopping 25.5% turnout," he said. "I personally am troubled by that. I know many, many independent voters that are engaged, they want to participate in the process, and they're shut out."

Sen. Brenda McKenna, D-Corrales, also said the bill would increase voter participation.

A longtime phone canvasser, McKenna said she heard from voters who are "turned off" because they were unable to participate in primaries.

"They would get frustrated because they would have to change their party affiliation ... to participate in either one of the Republican, Democratic or Libertarian parties, and more often than not, they found that too time consuming because they would have to change back again," she said. "If anything, we're going to encourage more participation in this democratic republic."

Sen. Steven Neville, R-Aztec, noted elections are taxpayer-funded, which should give everyone the right to participate. He was among three Republicans who voted in support of the bill.

"The reason why people are changing more and more to independent is because they don't like Donald Trump or they don't like Elizabeth Warren or they don't like Bernie Sanders. Whatever the case is, they're fed up," Neville said.

It's "not that they're disinterested in the politics of what's going on," he added. "They're just fed up with parties."

Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, predicted the change would make it more difficult to find people to run for office because the cost of elections would increase as candidates would have to reach out to a bigger pool of voters.

"It will give the one who has the most money the advantage because this is what this boils down to," he said.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is expected to vote later this week on a broader voting rights bill that would, among other things, automatically register qualified voters after they complete a transaction at the Motor Vehicle Division, create a permanent absentee voter list and make Election Day a state holiday.

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.