Voters will face several key questions when early voting opens Tuesday
Oct. 8—Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark describes casting a ballot in October as "on-time voting" and heading to the polls on election day "last-minute voting."
That's because the county provides so many ways to vote early.
Voting begins Tuesday for the Nov. 7 election, where Santa Fe voters will elect City Council and school board members, as well as approve or reject measures to fund schools and a much-debated proposal for an excise tax on million-dollar homes, among other things.
All Santa Fe County residents can vote early at the County Clerk's Office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays through Nov. 3, or on Saturday, Nov. 4. On Oct. 21, early voting expands to eight additional locations throughout the county from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, through Nov. 4.
People's last chance to vote will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day at numerous sites, including new ones downtown and at Santa Fe Community College, Clark said.
Even though local elections have "significant and direct impact" on day-to-day life, Clark said in a news release, only about a quarter of eligible voters in the county tend to turn out.
Turnout has significantly increased since 2019, when New Mexico gave municipalities the option to consolidate municipal and school-related elections into county-run November elections. The city of Santa Fe and town of Edgewood opted in, although the city of Española has not yet done so, Clark said.
Before 2019, some nonpartisan elections scattered throughout the year drew only 1-2% voter turnout.
"Even me, [as] a super election nerd, would not know there was a school bond election until I just happened to pass a polling site," Clark said.
According to data from the state Secretary of State, about 17,000 people — or 17% of eligible voters in Santa Fe County — voted in the 2019 consolidated local election, while 24% of eligible voters cast a ballot in the 2021 election, which included a mayoral race.
What's on the ballot
Visit the "What's on the ballot?" tab on the Santa Fe County elections website, SantaFe.vote, to see a full list of candidates and questions on the ballot.
The ballot includes contested races for half the seats on the Santa Fe City Council, one seat on the Santa Fe Public Schools board and one seat on the Santa Fe Community College board, along with other municipal and school board seats in the county.
All positions on the ballot are for four-year terms, except for a seat on the Santa Fe Community College board, which has a six-year term, and a special election for a two-year term on the Moriarty-Edgewood school board.
The city of Santa Fe uses ranked choice voting for its races, which means District 1 voters can rank the four candidates running for their council seat.
If any candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, they will win the seat. If not, the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated, and their supporters' second-choice votes will be divided among the three candidates remaining. Any candidate with more than 50% of the vote at that point will win. Otherwise, once again, the last-ranked candidate of the three will be eliminated, with their supporters' second-choice votes divided among the two remaining candidates to determine the winner.
Santa Fe voters will also weigh in on five city ballot questions and two questions about levying property taxes for Santa Fe Public Schools.
One ballot question asks whether the city should introduce a 3% excise tax on the purchase price of homes worth over $1 million dollars — with the tax only applied to the portion above $1 million, and paid by buyers — to go into the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which provides mortgage and rental assistance to low-income residents and helps fund affordable housing developments.
Other ballot questions ask whether the city should change its charter, including lowering the percentage of voter signatures required to place a referendum and/or initiatives on the ballot and more clearly defining the charter commission's appointments and functions.
Another questions asks whether Santa Fe Public Schools should renew property taxes through 2029 to buy up to $55 million of educational technology equipment as well as to build, remodel and improve schools and pay to lease or buy property.
Pojoaque Valley School District residents will decide whether to approve property taxes for capital improvements, while Española school district and Santa Fe Community College district residents will vote on issuing bonds for school improvements.
How to register
Through Tuesday, Oct. 10, people can register to vote online at NMVote.org or by filling out a voter registration form at the Santa Fe County Clerk's Office during business hours.
After Tuesday, people must register to vote in person at a polling site before casting a ballot. To register in person, voters must bring one of the following:
* A New Mexico driver's license or state identification card.
* A photo ID plus any document that contains the voter's address, such as a utility bill.
* A current student photo ID from a New Mexico higher educational institution, plus a current student fee statement that contains the student's address.
How to vote by mail
Mail-in voting jumped during the pandemic and remains popular, Clark said — about 20% of voters in Santa Fe County in the 2022 primary election cast an absentee ballot.
To vote by mail, people must request a ballot through the Secretary of State's Voter Information Portal online at NMVote.org by Oct. 24. That includes people who have voted by mail in the past, as the state's permanent absentee voter list has not yet taken effect.
The earlier, the better, Clark said. Election officials moved up the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot after receiving an "unfortunate number" of ballots after Election Day in recent elections — which do not get counted, she said.
Ballots will be mailed starting Tuesday, and voters should allow 10 days one-way for ballots to travel in the mail.
To request a mail-in ballot, people will need to provide a driver's license or state identification number, Social Security number and date of birth. Voters will receive their ballot in the mail and can either mail it back to the County Clerk's Office or return it at any hour of the day to several drop-box locations, which are listed online at SantaFe.Vote.
