The Independent View: NM SoS Advocates for Open Primaries

New Mexico Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, advocates that New Mexico switch to a version of Open Primaries.

Open Primary: A Registered Voter may Vote in any Party Primary regardless of their own Party Affiliation.

A Semi-Closed Primary: is one in which Party-Affiliated Voters Cast Votes in their Party's Primary, and Non-Affiliated Voters can choose which Party's Primary to Vote in.

Currently New Mexico has Closed Primaries.

Voters who are Registered Members of a Qualified Party can only Vote in their Party’s Primary Election.

Under Oliver's Open Primary, Independent and Minor-Party Voters can choose any Primary Ballot.

Of the 1,233,513 Individuals Registered to Vote in New Mexico, 950,032 are Affiliated with one of the three Major Political Parties: Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians.

The other 283,481 Voters either chose not to be Affiliated with any Political Party or Registered with one of the State’s Minor Parties: Green Party of New Mexico and Better for America Party of New Mexico.

That means about 23% of all New Mexico Voters will be forced to watch from the Sidelines during Primary Elections.

Oliver says: I’m going to push for an open primary system here in New Mexico, but I can’t do it alone. We need our lawmakers to pass legislation creating an open primary system that makes sense for New Mexico’s voters and we need a governor who will sign it into law. I’ll do my part by continuing to work with good government advocacy groups — like New Mexico Open Primaries — leading up to and during next year’s legislative session to find enough lawmakers to champion the cause and get the job done.