Voting is just one of those things—like eating your broccoli or brushing your teeth. Society (or, in some cases, your parents) is always telling you to do it, it feels like a big pain in the ass and in the end you’re better off for it. The difference between broccoli, teeth-brushing and civic duty is that while you’re pretty much forced to do the first two as a kid, the latter is completely a matter of freewill. No one’s going to punish you if you don’t vote—except yourself and whoever it is you non-elect into office.And so we come to the American dilemma: How do we get reasonable, freedom-loving, independent adults to drag their feet to the voting booth to press a button or mark a box? How do we get more than 30 percent of Albuquerqueans to vote on Primary Election Day? We ask them to. Please, please, all you responsible, freedom-loving, independent adults, we won’t ask you to clean your plaque or up your iron intake, but we do ask you, very nicely, to vote this June 6.If you’d like to vote but need a little help getting started, rest assured, we’ve got you covered. Find within the next few pages a guide to help you navigate through the not-so-complex process of voting, including the Alibi ’s endorsements for the primary election, answers to frequently asked voting questions and a handy clip-out guide to take with you to the polls, if you so desire. But, please, use that reasonable, freedom-loving, independent mind of yours and decide who you’d like to vote for—because although we think the candidates we endorsed have the most experience, qualifications and drive to get the best job done in their relative offices, it’s also your civic duty to weigh all the options and decide for yourself. That’s why we’ve included background information for all the primary candidates, even those we didn’t endorse.In an attempt to preserve our sanity, we didn’t cover every race in this year’s primary election–we left out the races for State House of Representatives, Bernalillo county assessor, Bernalillo county sheriff and metro judge–and chose to focus mainly on the big statewide races, with the Bernalillo county commission and Public Regulation Commission races thrown in for kicks.Editor Steven Robert Allen and myself met with 18 of the 21 candidates running for land commissioner, attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor, Public Regulation Commission District 4, U.S. senator and Bernalillo county commissioner. Oftentimes, the decision on who to endorse was difficult, as there are many qualified candidates in this year’s primary; other times, the choice was a bit easier. We’ve put together this election guide to help steer you through the voting process. We hope you find our recommendations useful.Thank you, good luck, and we’ll see you at the polls.
Strike!
A Guide To Getting Your Vote On This Primary Season
3 min read
