Rising costs, protecting democracy: Santa Fe early voters discuss their reasons for casting ballots

Some voters in Santa Fe County cited rising costs and protecting democracy as top issues after casting their ballots during New Mexico’s early voting period. The county’s top election official said that with early voting ending Saturday, the county is on pace to surpass final turnout from the 2022 General Election.

This general election, New Mexicans will elect a new governor for the first time in eight years, as well as vote in contested races for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Voters will also weigh in on several races for the state Legislature, along with constitutional amendments and ballot initiatives. 

As of Friday morning, nearly 42,000 absentee and early vote ballots had been cast in Santa Fe County, according to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office, pushing voter turnout more than halfway toward surpassing its final turnout percentage in the previous general election, the Santa Fe County Clerk’s office said in a news release. 

Outside the Greer Garson Theater, one of the early voting locations in Santa Fe the clerk’s office said had been particularly busy, Liliana Diaz, 20, and her brother Anthony, 19, said rising costs and concern over the Project Jupiter data center under construction in Doña Ana County brought them to cast their ballots. Liliana, now a student at the University of New Mexico, previously graduated from the New Mexico School of Arts high school in Santa Fe and told Source NM it would be “against her morals” to support Project Jupiter since A.I. is “against the artisticness of Santa Fe.” 

Anthony Diaz told Source NM that the Trump administration made “false promises” after launching the Iran War in February. With gas and grocery prices rising, Diaz, also a student at UNM and a math tutor, told Source NM he has to find ways just to get by.

“I end up donating plasma just so I can have a little money for rent and for groceries,” he told Source NM. Liliana added that her brother “almost passed out” a few days ago after donating plasma when the pair were set to go to a pumpkin patch. 

The siblings said they were most excited to vote in the gubernatorial race between Democrat Deb Haaland and Republican Gregg Hull. Both said they voted for Haaland, citing the candidate’s identity as a Native American woman,  which “would be really beneficial to New Mexico,” Liliana Diaz said.

Chloe Brennan and Danielle Scott Taylor, both early voters, also said they were most excited to vote in the gubernatorial race and both also voted for Haaland. For Brennan, who brought her baby daughter in a chest carrier to vote early, the most important issue was “voting rights and maintaining democracy as we know it.” 

Scott Taylor told Source NM that “keeping the momentum” for Democratic leadership in the state was her most important issue. She added that she also voted for U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) in both their races. 

“I voted every election,” Scott Taylor said, but the Trump administration made her “certainly more motivated to keep the leadership that we have and show support.”

One man at Greer Garson Theater said he voted for Republican gubernatorial candidate Gregg Hull, but declined to provide his name.

Registered Democrats make up 58.1% of registered voters in Santa Fe County, followed by 25% independent or Decline to State voters and 15.4% registered Republicans, according to the most recent Secretary of State registration data.

Ahead of the end of early voting before Tuesday Election Day, Santa Fe County Clerk’s Office encouraged voters in a Thursday news release to use the county’s nine early voting locations, all open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. that day. 

“Make this final Saturday of early voting part of your Halloween plans,” Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark said in a statement. “Check your polling location before you go and remember: earlier is easier.”