For many years, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s web page has been showing voter registration data only for the Democratic and Republican Parties, instead of all the qualified parties.
However, the Secretary’s web page now lists all qualified parties. The five qualified parties in New Mexico now are Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, and Better for America. Better for America is the group formed to help Evan McMullin get on the ballot. Because McMullin polled over one-half of 1% for president in New Mexico, his party is still on the ballot. Thanks to Angel Espinoza, from the Secretary of State’s office, for this information.
States which sometimes post voter registration data on their web pages for some parties for which data exists, but not for all of them, are Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, and Pennsylvania. BAN recently tried to persuade Iowa to make the sort of improvement that New Mexico has just made, but Iowa Secretary of State has not agreed.
There are two “other” columns at the end of the table. Any idea who they represent?
Good question. If I had to guess, I would assume the smaller-total column is the totals for the parties that were on in 2016 but which went off the ballot: Constitution, American Delta, Independent American, and Party for Socialism and Liberation. Then I would guess the larger-total column are the parties that were on the ballot long ago, some of which had rather large registrations, such as the Independent Party of 2008 which nominated Ralph Nader.
You could ask the employee who prepared the revised web page. She is very responsive. Angel Espinoza, 505-476-0351. Angel.Espinoza@state.nm.us.
great work Richard. This is the first time in my memory the SoS office has ever posted any party totals other than Major Parties.
FYI, Iowa included their Libertarian tally of 9,100 registrants in their March tally.
Do these states ever give a reason for collecting that data and not publishing it? Too much work to press an extra 30 keystrokes every year?