The primary election is today. More than one-third of legislative candidates have already won.

The early voting area inside the Las Cruces City Hall, on Monday, May 20, 2024. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)

Not one of the 70 seats in the New Mexico House of Representatives is a district in which both Democrats and Republicans fielded more than one candidate.

It’s a similar story in the Senate, where three of 42 seats have more than one Democrat and more than one Republican competing in the primaries today. Those races, where most voters have a choice to make today, are for District 9, 12 and 21.

The general lack of competition in the race means the majority of voters who are registered with the two major political parties in New Mexico have no choice at all to make when it comes to selecting a candidate for the November general election.

In fact, of about 577,000 registered Democrats in the state as of January of this year, 70% of them have one or zero House candidates to vote for today, according to a Source New Mexico analysis of statewide elections and registration data.

NM Senate candidates spend more than $1 million – at times on each other – ahead of primary

According to the same analysis, 78% of 413,000 registered Republicans have the same lack of choice on their House ballots.

The percentages are slightly better in the Senate, where 59% of Democrats and 63% of Republicans have two Senate candidates to choose from.

And libertarians, the biggest third party in New Mexico, have the least choice today: Of more than 14,000 registered statewide, only about 300 of them have a choice to make in House District 43 in Los Alamos. Two libertarians are running for that seat.

Dede Feldman, a former lawmaker and spokesperson for Common Cause New Mexico, said the lack of competition makes the democratic process “very weird” for voters.

“Elections are less competitive now across the board, when you look at it that way,” she told Source New Mexico . “And in those races where there is competition, they are more hotly contested, and more money is spent on them.”

Records show fundraising flurry among state legislative candidates over last month

Gail Armstrong, a Republican incumbent without an opponent for District 49, said running unopposed provides one advantage for her voters in the district encompassing parts of Catron, Sierra, Socorro and Valencia Counties: It lets her avoid being distracted from her constituents’ needs:

“It does allow me to focus on issues,” she said. “And that would be infrastructure in New Mexico. All of New Mexico would be better off with these things focused on: Infrastructure, water, health and schools.”

There are 26 seats in the House in which just one candidate is running. Twenty-four belong to incumbents who will serve another two-year term in Santa Fe beginning in January 2025.

Of the 44 remaining races, all of them feature at least one uncontested primary. Several races feature more than two candidates, including four Democrats vying for District 18 and three Republicans competing for District 31.

In the Senate, 13 races are unopposed in both the primary and general elections. All unopposed races are for seats belonging to incumbents who will begin their next four year term at the start of next year’s 60-day legislative session.

An additional 13 races feature an uncontested Democrat or Republican in the primary election.

“There’s so many uncontested elections,” Feldman said about state legislative elections this cycle. “And then the ones in the primary, the winner doesn’t have any general election. So, it’s very weird.”

But it’s not just state lawmakers on the ballot today, and voters may be compelled to head to the polls to cast votes for local races like county commission and clerk.

District attorney races are seeing additional interest , at least according to the latest finance reports, amid renewed attention on crime and public safety across the state.

Source New Mexico reporters Dani Prokop and Austin Fisher contributed to this report.

See maps below of which seats in the state House and Senate are uncontested.

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