By: Bravo Mic Communications, Leslie T Travis, May 9, 2026
TRANSCRIPT:
Leslie T Travis:
“Bravo Mic Communications, it’s our Community connection program, because we connect you with people around the With people who have some interesting things going on or news that you need to hear and I think since we’ve got an election starting already and so we need to find out about these observers that folks are training to make sure that our elections are fair and on the phone with me right now Carmen Lopez with Observe NM Elections. And tell me a little bit about this, you actually train people to go and watch voting places to make sure our elections are fair, correct?”
Carmen Lopez:
“Yes, all over Dona Ana County and all over the state, we are inviting voters to come out and learn more about elections, and we will train folks and we will give folks checklists and we will and then out to their local polling places and ask them to observe voting and let us know what they see.”
Leslie T Travis:
“Is this something new to New Mexico?”
Carmen Lopez:
“It is. This started in 2024, and we were able to observe statewide in 2024, and then in 2025, we focused on 11 municipal elections across the state, and this year we are going back to the full state model.”
Leslie T Travis:
“It sounds like an excellent way to make sure that our elections are fair and everyone gets a chance to vote. What are some of the irregularities that people have brought back from the polls? Have you had a lot of them?”
Carmen Lopez:
“We’ve had a few things that observers have noticed in past years that we’ve brought to the attention of the County Clerk and the Secretary of State, including not covering in poll worker training the need to provide language access specifically in Navajo and Pueblo and other non-English languages.”
Leslie T Travis:
“So, if someone wanted to become an observer of the elections and take the training to do it properly, how would they get in contact with you?”
Carmen Lopez:
“So you can go online and look up observe New Mexico elections and go to the get involved page, and there’s a link at the bottom for observers.”
Leslie T Travis:
“That’s Observenmelection.org, observenmelection.org. On the phone with me right now is Carmen Lopez. What’s the deadline for folks to get into the training?”
Carmen Lopez:
“Well, we will be inviting people to join us all year, this year.”
Leslie T Travis:
“Congratulations on your organization and thank you so much for doing this for New Mexico.”
Carmen Lopez:
“Thank you so much, Leslie.”
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