Bob Perls

It is a major change to state elections but it may not have a major impact on election outcomes. That appears to be the consensus among the political pros as they weigh the new rules for party primaries signed into law this week by MLG. That law states:

Some 330,000 unaffiliated voters in New Mexico will now be able to participate in primary elections without first having to change their voter registration to a major party. Senate Bill 16 is a measure that would create so-called semi-open primaries in the state.

To flesh out the history of this change and the surge it will mean in eligible voters for partisan elections, we spoke with former state Rep, Bob Perls of Corrales, the founder of the state movement for open primaries:

Joe, it’s been a 10 year effort and thousands of hours of volunteer time to pass an open primaries bill culminating in the passage of SB16. I want to thank the NM Open Elections Board members who kept the momentum alive and the state legislators who sponsored various versions of the legislation over the last decade. Then in 2022 NM Open Elections had some key local supporters write some sizable checks that allowed me and our Board to hire our first paid Executive Director, Sila Avcil, who took us to the next level. Nothing is more gratifying to realize that I helped enfranchise over 300,000 voters in NM to be able to exercise their fundamental human right to vote in a public election. 

It will be fun to watch in 2026 how the major parties reach out to independent voters and the party that does it best will reap the rewards. The bill takes effect in the 2026 election cycle. As a group, our position is that it does not benefit one party over another and nationally that seems to be the case. 

I would hope candidates that might not get the full-throated endorsement of the major parties might be encouraged to run realizing they can run a primary in either party targeting independent voters who are not going to care if the candidate espouses typical party orthodoxy.  

There is good data that independents are diverse, but tend to reflect the districts they come from. In other words they are not going to be a lot further left or right than their own neighborhoods.

As a whole, they don’t want to be told who to vote for and don’t want the binary choice of the parties which have tracked further left and right over the years. They want to hear about the issues and concrete solutions. Which party will do that for them? It could lead to more moderate candidates getting elected, but there is no clear evidence of that. 

The biggest change will simply be having 330,000 new potential voters--23 percent of all registered voters-eligible to vote in state primaries. Given that 50% of veterans and young people are registered as independent voters nationally and 30% + of Native American communities, there is a chance those groups could have an impact on primary elections. The main thing is that their constitutional right to vote is finally protected. 

Thanks, Bob. Just how many of the independents will decide to vote in the primaries is uncertain. Turnout for independents is usually lower than for voters in the major parties. We'll start to get some answers next year beginning with the June primary where candidates will compete for an open gubernatorial seat and many other offices. 

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