The Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office held early voting at UNM through Nov. 8 — the Saturday before Election Day — and this year’s results yielded more votes than the previous presidential election cycle.
Joey Keefe, a public information officer at the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office, said a total of 8,511 voters cast an early ballot at UNM, a slight increase from 2012 when just under 8,300 voted at UNM.
The office’s voter outreach team held numerous events at UNM throughout the year to promote voting among the University’s students, he said.
“Our office is proud of the fact that there was an overall consistent turnout at the UNM site each day through the early voting period,” Keefe said.
The Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office has operated an early voting site at UNM since 2008, and currently intends to continue operating this site in future elections, he said.
“I encourage all voters to vote early if possible,” Keefe said.
Early voting appears to be trending throughout the county, as more than 180,000 voters cast their ballots early in 2016, which was over 30,000 more than in 2012, he said.
Nathan Cowan, executive director of ASUNM Governmental Affairs, said it seemed the voter turnout was a little down across the country from the 2012 campaign, so it was nice to hear it about the slight uptick at UNM.
“I don’t have any real, tangible evidence as to why this may have occurred, but I think we can assert that candidates (Donald) Trump and (Hillary) Clinton targeted our voting demographic more strategically than we’ve seen in the past,” Cowan said.
He said some of the way candidates were reaching out to Millenials was through Twitter, utilizing surrogates that appeal to the younger crowd of voters, and voting reminders flooding Snapchat with unique filters.
Statistically, younger demographics don’t vote as regularly as they should, Cowan said. Because of this, he said the UNM polling site is instrumental to UNM students, as well as the surrounding community voting.
“I think we’d all be a little upset if it wasn’t continually used,” Cowan said.
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A handful of groups on campus this season promoted voter turnout, he said.
“When my office partnered with the County Clerk’s Office to host voter registration agent drives, we had a great turnout, and those agents then went on to register fellow students,” he said.
Cowan said he believed these teams were very effective, and hopes they maintain the level of passion they brought to campus in the future on other major civic issues that could affect students.
Cowan also said he was amazed at how much of his friends and peers cared about the election enough to stand in a line at the poll that snaked its way through the top floor of the SUB on Nov. 8.
That, he said, was an inspiring sight.
Regardless of who anyone voted for, Cowan said he was just glad to see that people cared.
“I hope that everyone voting had taken the time to inform themselves, but I definitely believe that you can never be over-informed,” he said.
Cowan said voting is more than a right or a privilege; it’s an obligation.
“I hope this election served to inspire the student population to keep their eyes on the news moving forward and making sure they stay civically engaged, because here at UNM, we’re surrounded by brilliant minds,” he said.
For himself, voting is more than filling in bubbles every couple years — Cowan said it is to continually uphold the ideas you support and vote for.
“Politics can be gross and exhausting,” he said, “but as informed voters, it’s our responsibility to pay attention and keep everyone who takes office accountable for their actions.”
Nichole Harwood is a news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Nolidoli1.
