If you are planning to head to the polls for this year’s elections to make your voice heard on the local levels of government, you may see a drastic difference between the voting lines compared to just a year ago.
Last year’s presidential election sparked massive voter turnout due to high voter enthusiasm, but municipal elections tend to garner less attention, even with the city’s top job on the ballot.
Incumbent Mayor Tim Keller and Darren White are the top two candidates who lead this year’s election, according to Research and Polling, a local polling firm based in Albuquerque, published by the Albuquerque Journal.
Research and Polling CEO Brian Sanderoff said voter turnout in Bernalillo County is not expected to get anywhere near as high as in the previous presidential or midterm elections — 74% in 2024, and 55% in 2022 of eligible voters.
There are multiple reasons as to why this is the case Sanderoff said, but that he does see this year’s election turnout spiking compared to the 2023 local election at 22%, because of the top of the ticket this time around.
“Turnout is going to be higher than two years ago, because the mayor wasn’t on the ballot, but it will be much lower than in the statewide general elections,” Sanderoff said.
The last mayoral election, which took place in 2021, had 33% of eligible voters cast their ballot, which he expects to be near the same this year.
In Research and Polling’s latest published poll on Sept. 28, 37% of voters said that they were undecided. Sanderoff believes that a lack of enthusiasm is causing many voters to tune out of the election, leading many voters to become involved in the races only recently and late in the election cycle. Sanderoff said the low campaigning budgets of the mayoral candidates are a leading cause of this.
While voters still have plenty of time to catch up, that doesn’t mean they’ll vote, Sanderoff said.
“Many voters have just not taken the time to study the alternative candidates, and many of those people will end up not voting in the election,” Sanderoff said.
Though the election is not as high-profile as determining who will sit in the White House or the Governor’s Mansion in Santa Fe next year, this election will still have large implications on local systems of government including the Mayor’s Office, City Hall, the Albuquerque Public School Board and on Soil and Water Conservation.
Early voting has already started and will end on Saturday, Nov. 1. Polls will close on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, at 7:00 p.m.
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Wyatt S. Padilla is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @wyattspadilla
