Statewide elections take place on Nov. 4 and each year many voters rely on the guides created by the . The organization is non-partisan, which means it doesn鈥檛 support or oppose any candidate or political party. President Hannah Burling spoke to Nash Jones on New Mexico in Focus about how the League works to build trust in voting and provide information.
HANNAH BURLING: We have various ways of working on getting out the vote. We reassure people whenever possible. We have done videos on exactly what happens to your ballot after you put it into that box, and we have worked with the county clerks to reassure voters and to get them out.
NMPBS: Do you see that that work had to shift at all after this ?
BURLING: I believe that people have now had more time and are no longer caught up in their emotions to a certain degree, and can see that it is extremely difficult to vote fraudulently.
NMPBS: So you feel like you're seeing, trust on the ground increasing in elections?
BURLING: I hope that trust on the ground is increasing, but I cannot point you to any numbers for that.
NMPBS: Let's talk logistics on the voter guide. Folks can find it at . What kind of information are they going to find when they go there?
BURLING: Well, there are three possible pages to go to, and the first allows you to register to vote, though I believe that deadline has already passed in New Mexico. It was October 8. Then you can check your registration, just to make sure you are registered, or you can go to find my ballot. You enter your address on the next page, you enter your language, and there's your ballot.
NMPBS: What is the information that's going to be laid out for someone? It鈥檚 basically customized, right based on their address?
BURLING: Based on their address, they will see the races for their district, which could be school board, Soil and Water Conservation District, county commissioner, city councilor.
NMPBS: So that could be informative in and of itself, just knowing everything that's going to be on your ballot.
BURLING: Right. It has for whatever the number of races is, if you click on the race, you will see the candidates, or you will see the ballot questions.
NMPBS: And so besides the registration you've talked about and candidate information, is there other kind of information that folks can glean from Vote411.org?
BURLING: Yes, there is, generally the last thing listed under the races is New Mexico election information. If you click on that, you will see all these links taking you to the Secretary of State's office, the County Clerk's Office, and to the various websites of the local leagues, all of which have a printable PDF in English and Spanish.
NMPBS: I was going to ask you, because, you know, for less tech-savvy voters, they may be interested in a less interactive option. So there's printable PDFs for your local leagues, is that right? And then before you right now, you have got a paper copy of one. Which local league is that from?
BURLING: This is Santa Fe County. They printed one this year.
NMPBS: And are they the only ones that have a print version?
BURLING: I think Los Alamos is also printing this year.
NMPBS: Is that because of financial constraints, or because this is a local election, not a big statewide election, or why are some folks printing and some folks aren鈥檛?
BURLING: Money, and we'd like to save some money for the 2026 elections. And apropos of then, it was so interesting that you asked about people trusting more in local elections when they vote so much less in local elections.
NMPBS: Right, the turnout is so much lower. But it has been shown that when you're looking at like the day-to-day impact in somebody's life of an election, they're likely to find far more direct impact on their life from a local election than something as popular, maybe as a presidential election.
BURLING: Right, if you're interested in your school board, your county commissioner, your water and sanitation district, the local election is the place to make your voice heard.