New Mexico observers report ‘generally smooth’ 2026 election

The 260 certified observers enlisted to watch key steps of New Mexico’s 2026 general election said the process went “smoothly overall,” according to a news release this week from Observe New Mexico Elections, though a small number of voters seeking to register and vote on Tuesday faced delays.

Observe New Mexico Elections, a nonprofit group funded by the Carter Center, which former President Jimmy Carter founded, has sent hundreds of observers to monitor the last five New Mexico elections.

Observers watched statewide this year during voting machine and equipment certification, poll worker training, early voting, absentee ballot processing and Election Day monitoring. The group’s aim was to watch every early voting location in the state at least once, as well as be in 50% of statewide polling places in each county and all of Bernalillo County’s polling places on Election Day, the group’s co-leader Carmen Lopez told Source NM in a pre-election interview last week.

In addition to Observe New Mexico Elections’ observers, five other groups deployed hundreds of watchers throughout the state on Election Day, and the United States Department of Justice sent approximately 10 monitors to observe Bernalillo County polling places on Tuesday. 

In a news release Wednesday, Lopez said observers saw strong voter turnout and smooth voting processes across the state.

“Initial feedback from ONME observers shows that the General Election ran smoothly overall, with a handful of polling sites impacted by delays in the same-day voter registration system,” she said. “In addition, poll workers in flood-affected areas sought creative solutions to keep the lines moving.”

San Juan County and others in northern New Mexico have been recovering from widespread flooding that damaged thousands of homes in the days leading up to Election Day. 

According to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office, San Juan County voters turned out at a lower rate than in the last midterm election. In 2022, roughly 51% of voters cast ballots; this year, a little less than 45% of voters turned out. 

Statewide, Observe New Mexico Elections has repeatedly noted delays in recent elections with same-day registration, which enables voters to register to vote at a polling place and cast ballots afterward, once the Secretary of State’s Office has processed their applications.

Bernalillo County expecting 10 USDOJ monitors on Election Day

On Tuesday, the group said delays or system shutdowns affected same-day voters in a small number of locations, but the observer group received “positive reports about the creativity of poll workers in high turnout areas by shifting resources between polling locations” to address the issue, Lopez said. 

Lindsey Bachman, the secretary of state’s communications, legislative and executive affairs director, did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for comment.

The Secretary of State’s Office, in a news release Tuesday night, celebrated what Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said was a “safe, secure, and accessible general election in New Mexico.” On Thursday, the state’s Office of Cybersecurity announced that the state’s electronic election networks and systems stayed secure throughout the election, thanks to months of planning between the office and other state agencies.

“New Mexicans cast their ballots with confidence, and they had every reason to,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “Our agencies, election officials and partners spent months preparing for every scenario so voters never had to wonder whether their vote was safe. That is the strong foundation we’ll hand off to the next administration.”

Like it does after every election, Observe New Mexico Elections will send out a full, comprehensive report on New Mexico’s election processes in the coming weeks. The group will also send observers to witness the ballot certification process beginning soon.