“We really owned what happened on November 4th. It was all about us, the big us. This election wasn’t about Barack Obama or John McCain. It was the American people and their hunger for change.” ~Robby Rodriguez, Executive Director, South West Organizing Project.
It’s now Friday, November 7th. I returned from New Mexico two days ago and am still reflecting upon the implications of the historical election results. How do I summarize what I felt, tasted, and experienced during my stay in Albuquerque? What words can adequately capture the great Get Out the Vote work accomplished by the teams of SAGE Council and Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP)? Perhaps the best way to begin is to let the results speak for themselves.
The hotly contested, battleground state of New Mexico was the first Western state to be called in this week’s election. Last election they had to wait weeks before it was officially called. There are nearly 1.2 million registered voters in the state. When early voting began on October 18th, Bernalillo County opened 15 satellite voting locations to encourage people to get out and vote. County officials said more than 2,000 people showed up to vote within the first hour and a half that polls were open. In total, it is estimated that 80 percent of New Mexico’s registered voters cast ballots in this year’s general election. This makes it among the best rates of voter participation in a presidential election in New Mexico history.
What does this strong voter turn out point towards? In my mind, it demonstrates that the people came to the general election with a renewed zeal in the democratic process.
“I know what it’s like to not have something to eat,” remarked Tracy Chacon, a 19-yr old first time voter and a SWOP member. “But when I tell people to go out to vote and have your voice be heard, it’s because if everyone from where I came from voted, if everyone who had a problem with how things are working now would go vote, then things would work out in our benefit.”
What I saw during those days spent with SAGE Council and SWOP—at the doors in Albuquerque or on the pueblos of Acoma and To’hagiilee–was an indefatigable spirit in the youth, women, and men of New Mexico, who all stood up to exercise the rights and privileges guaranteed to them in the constitution of the United States. The people seized the vote in order to take back control over their lives to which have been overlooked and slighted in our political institutions for many years. In my heart, I feel it was the people on November 4th who finally pumped blood and life back into the tool that is the ballot!
