LWV News:

SANTA FE — The League of Women Voters of Santa Fe County today released a short, animated video to help prepare voters for the state’s first-ever semi-open primary next month.

The professionally produced video, “Your Vote. Your Voice,” is available in both English and Spanish on the state league’s website (lwvnm.org), and is offered to news organizations and voting rights groups to share on their websites and social media as well.

“Primary elections regularly have abysmal turnout. We can change that with our new semi-open primary law, but we have to get the word out,” said Kelly Davis, LWVSFC’s vice president for Voter Services. “We want everyone in New Mexico to see this video and realize they can participate in our June 2 primary election,” she said.

The video, which runs just over 2 minutes, explains how traditional primary elections exclude about 25% of the electorate—those voters registered as Independent, Decline to State or with one of the two minor parties New Mexico recognizes—the Green Party and Libertarian Party.

Under New Mexico’s new semi-open primary law, everyone can participate in the June 2 primary election. Independent and DTS voters will simply request either a Democratic or Republican ballot at their polling place. Green and Libertarian voters may use same-day voter registration right at their polling place to change their registration to Independent, DTS, Democrat or Republican and then participate in one major-party primary.

The video was produced by Albuquerque-based DLF Branding and Utility Agency on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Santa Fe County as part of the 29-member YourVote NM Coalition. In addition to LWV, coalition members include Common Cause New Mexico, NM Voters First, ACLU New Mexico, Somos Un Pueblo Unido and national experts like Democracy Rising.

For more information, visit lwvnm.org, lwvsfc.org and YourVoteNM.com