17-year-olds prepare to vote in New Mexico primary

With another election looming and renewed attention on the power of high school students to shift the political agenda, the question is whether the youngest voters will turn out and cast ballots — and whether New Mexico is doing much to engage them.

About 1,300 of New Mexico’s registered voters are 17 years old and will be 18 by Election Day, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

The state has taken a first step to engage teenagers in the electoral process: For the second time since legislators changed the state’s laws in 2016, 17-year-old New Mexicans will be allowed to cast ballots in the upcoming June 5 primary election. New Mexico is one of a minority of states that allow underage residents to register to vote and participate in a political party’s primary, provided they will turn 18 by the time of the general election.

Fourteen other states have similar provisions, and many of those appear to have signed up larger shares of eligible voters.

Maryland has three times the population of New Mexico, for example, but its board of elections says nearly 33,000 residents on its voter rolls are 17 years old and another 12,000 are 16 years old (they cannot vote but will be ready when eligible).

Meanwhile, this will be the first year that 17-year-olds in Utah can vote in the primary election, and state officials there say about 4,000 are already on the voter rolls.

In New Mexico, state Sen. Jeff Steinborn says the policy on 17-year-olds voting in primary elections came at about the perfect time. Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, sponsored the measure, which took effect in time for the 2016 primary election.

“Young people have the majority of their lives ahead of them. Nobody has more at stake than they do,” Steinborn said.

Unusually, the 2016 presidential primary was hotly contested in both the Democratic and Republican parties in the June election in New Mexico. That gave an often overlooked state on the electoral map particular importance, and it might have helped galvanize interest among younger voters.

There could be another motivating influence this year as teenagers have led a push for gun control after a mass shooting at a Florida high school.

Will high school students go beyond marching and turn out in particularly large numbers to vote? At least in New Mexico, that does not seem to be reflected yet in the voter rolls.

Still, groups such as the League of Women Voters are making an effort to reach high school students. Those efforts can be diffuse in some parts of the state. In Doña Ana County, however, County Clerk Scott Krahling has worked to coordinate drives on campuses each spring.

“We have a goal of getting everyone who is eligible to register before they graduate high school,” he said.

There is new talk in some countries and in parts of the United States about lowering the voting age to 16. Scotland, for example, allowed 16-year-olds to vote in a referendum on whether to stay in the United Kingdom.

State Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, has proposed allowing 16-year-olds to vote in school board elections. He says such a move would boost turnout in what are often overlooked elections and engage the very students who stand to gain or lose the most from the education system.

Moreover, Martinez argues 18 can seem like an arbitrary age to limit voting rights.

“We trust 16-year-olds with a car, and we trust them to work and pay their taxes and be responsible,” he said. “Trusting them with their vote is equally important.”

Martinez said he would be interested in lowering the voting age for all elections but acknowledged the state may not be ready for that yet. And it would raise other questions: Could a 16-year-old, for example, run for office?

School board elections, he said, would at least be a start.

At Capital High, Tilp has encouraged students to register to vote and plenty have — whether online or through registration drives on campus. But new discussion about the role of teenagers in driving electoral change also comes at a time of mounting concern about the power of disinformation and social media to sway races.

Plenty of students in Tilp’s class said they would still rather see and hear the candidates for themselves.

How could a politician — a candidate for governor, say — get their votes in the coming months?

A quick show of hands served as a gauge of the issues that matter to the group of seniors on the cusp of graduation.

Education. Immigration. Health care.

Still, there is doubt that politicians will pay much attention to their issues.

“They’re focused on the present,” said Alejandra Mendoza-Reza, a senior. “This generation is the future, so they should focus on us as well.”

Whether New Mexico’s newest voters turn out this year may depend on how much candidates seek them out, sign them up and speak to their concerns from school funding to college tuition.

As senior Andres Rodriguez said: “They should show some initiative with the younger generation.”