UNM was one of about 70 voting locations across the county for Tuesday's primary election, the result of which saw former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump garner statewide victories in their respective parties.
Despite Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders taking Bernalillo county from Clinton by just over 1,300 votes out of about 75,000 cast, Clinton won the state by a mere three percentage points. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, took 68 percent in the country and 70 percent among the state's Republican voters.
In the midst of Tuesday's results trickling in, Clinton essentially claimed victory as the Democratic candidate following her victories in four more states on Wednesday, compared to Sanders' two. According to the AP, Clinton has 2,755 total delegates compared to 1,825 for Sanders following Tuesday's primaries.
UNM's station - located in the SUB where individuals could vote until 7 p.m. - was one of the more popular in the area. As of about 4:15 Tuesday afternoon, station workers said 842 had voted there.
That number had UNM hovering around the top ten in locations in Bernalillo county at that time, according to the country clerk's office.
Kim Adamson, who worked at the station since 6 a.m. on Tuesday, said the turnout was steady throughout the day. Despite its popularity, there was never more than 15 to 20 people waiting in line at any one moment.
Adamson has been working elections on campus since 2012 and said the primaries saw much more voters than early elections.
“It flew by super quick, everything's been pretty straightforward,” she said. “Its been nice, nothing too crazy has happened here."
Adamson said the only issues arose when some voters turned up in their systems under the wrong political party, or listed as being registered with no party at all.
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In New Mexico primaries, only voters registered as a Republican or Democrat may vote, and only for candidates in their party.
“It just caused a lot of conflict and that seems to be a common issue today,” Adamson said. “We do what we can to figure out what the reason was behind it.”
Overall, Adamson said it was a smooth day at the polls.
Tyler Johnson, a liberal arts major at UNM, said he was satisfied with the experience.
“It seems relatively professional,” he said. “I’ve heard in a lot of instances in a lot of other places that ‘the technology isn’t there’ or ‘the availability is impossible.’ This is delightful. It took me five minutes to vote.”
Johnson said he appreciated the ease of voting but he wishes New Mexico was an open primary state where voters don’t have to be registered with a party.
“The two party system as it is established, I think its ‘lazy,’ is the nicest word I can use to not pick a side,” he said. “I wish it was more open. I wish there were more parties involved in the system.”
Johnson said he realizes, as it is, you have to place your vote to be a practicing political citizen.
“Everybody talks about he lesser of two evils issue," he said. "Yes it's terrible, but if one of the evils is lesser you pick the lesser right?”
Aside from the national primaries, Johnson said its important to participate in local politics as well and he was disappointed that, on the ballot he was handed, there was little to no contention.
“It was democratic and a lot of those people didn’t have to fight for their job," he said. "They’re just already nominated."
Of the six U.S. representative races, only one had multiple candidates, in which Michael Romero easily beat out Michael Lucero for Republican representative in District 3. Several candidates in other races - including secretary of state for both the Republican and Democrat races - ran unopposed.
Matthew Reisen is the news editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Choposporvida.
