New Mexico can only benefit by opening up our primaries

There is a growing trend among New Mexico voters. More and more, voters are deciding not to affiliate with the parties, becoming independent voters or declined to state (DTS) voters. 

I am part of this trend. I became an independent voter almost ten years ago when I realized that no party represented my views. 

Who are New Mexico’s independent voters?

• 42% of independent voters in our state are Hispanic. 
• 62% are under the age of 50.
• 49% of our veterans are not registered with a party, and in the Native American community, 28.8% are registered as declined to state voters.

Looking at the latest voter enrollment figures from the Secretary of State’s Office for February, there are over 328,000 independent voters in New Mexico; nearly a quarter of all voters.

While there are many reasons why people become independent, the main one that I hear from fellow independents is that we do not wish to join a party, but rather to vote for individual candidates themselves. The decision to decline to state a party preference when we register to vote is not an indication of apathy or of disengagement. Far from it — independents have as strong a political identity as Democrats or Republicans. It’s an identity that deserves respect.

Regretfully, in New Mexico, we are penalized for expressing our political independence. We are denied the opportunity to vote in the primaries, the most critical round of elections in our state. Some have argued we should just join a party. But that misses the very point. We do not want to join a party, and the state shouldn’t require us to in order to vote. Imagine the state of New Mexico demanded that Democrats change their registration to Republican, or vice versa, to participate in public elections.   

We should not be forced to join a political party to exercise our right to vote in primaries. These are taxpayer funded and publicly administered elections. It is fundamentally unfair to disenfranchise more than 328,000 voters in our state.

What many New Mexico voters may not realize is that most states in the country do not run their primaries this way. In 34 states, there is some form of an open primary to allow independents — now the fastest growing group of voters in the U.S. — the right to vote in primaries. New Mexico is one of only 15 states that still locks out a huge swath of citizens from voting in elections that they pay for with their tax dollars.

We have an opportunity this year to correct this undemocratic feature of our elections. SB16 is a simple bill that would allow independent voters the opportunity to pick a ballot on primary day. 

SB16 is a solution that invites all our citizens to fully participate in every round of elections that are publicly funded and administered. For me this is a basic issue of fairness and ensuring no voter is disenfranchised. 

I spent my career as a speech and language pathologist, which means I have spent a great deal of time and effort helping people communicate and be understood. Voting is a critical part of communicating as an individual in a democracy. No one should face unnecessary barriers to their right to express themselves at the ballot box.  

It is time to remove the closed primary barrier and welcome independents fully into the process of our elections. Our state and our elected officials can only benefit when more citizens are able to participate. I hope that our Legislature and governor will realize that benefit by passing SB16 this year.

Tañia Triolo is a retired speech and language pathologist and lives in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque.