New Mexico’s elections ranked #1 in the nation by MIT Election Data and Science Lab
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) — There’s a stigma in the state that New Mexico is often shows up at the bottom of a lot of national lists; but now, a new ranking from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggests the Land of Enchantment is the best in the country at running elections. News 13 spoke with the secretary of state about how New Mexico got to the top.
“As we know, those of us who are New Mexicans, it’s so hard sometimes to be on the bottom of the good list and the top of the bad list. This is a point of pride each and every one of us as New Mexicans can take in our state that we are doing things right,” says New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver.
New Mexico’s elections were ranked best in the nation by the Elections Performance Index (EPI), a project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Election Data and Science Lab.
“Where we are really focusing our efforts to do things right is in the very foundations of our democracy and our government,” Toulouse Oliver says.
Researchers analyzed a variety of performance indicators from the 2022 midterm elections—measuring aspects of election administration such as voter registration rates, post-election audits, security protocols, ballot rejection rates, wait times, and more.
Story continues below
News: Survivor speaks out after deadly stabbing at Albuquerque dispensary
Community: Valencia County Animal Services hires first full-time veterinarian
Don’t Miss: New Mexico town named ‘The Happiest Small Town in America’
“MIT is looking at a combination of things. It’s looking at: are we doing the things that we need to do to ensure voter participation? While at the same time, ensuring integrity and election security,” Toulouse Oliver says.
New Mexico received an overall score of 81% on the EPI. Notable activity listed on the report for New Mexico includes improvements to its voter registration rate (80.35%), its number of provisional ballots rejected (.02%), and a voting wait time (3.8 minutes) under the national average of 5 minutes.
“We massively increased our voter registration rate in New Mexico. We used ERIC [Electronic Registration Information Center] to ensure that our database is clean, some of the cleanest voter books in the entire country. And, we have robust online resources for voters,” Toulouse Oliver says.
Despite an improvement to its voter registration rate, New Mexico scored worse than the nationwide average. (84.42%). The state also scored worse in voter turnout (46.65%) compared to the national average (47.54%). The state also saw a drop in voter turnout in 2022 compared to 2020 (61.25%) during the pandemic.
See how New Mexico’s elections have performed in previous years:
New Mexico election management data
2022 | 2020 | 2018 | |
Voter registration rate | 80.35% | 81.08% | 74.89% |
Provisional ballots rejected | .02% | .21% | .22% |
Voting wait time | 3.8 mintues | 3.8 minutes | 3.6 minutes |
Voter turnout | 46.65% | 61.25% | 47.34% |
New Mexico moved up eight spots in the rankings since the 2018 Elections Performance Index when the state ranked ninth.“The professional election administrators who keep the polls open and the votes counted and the engine of democracy running in New Mexico are exemplary and it’s an honor to see this work recognized on the national stage,” New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver stated in a news release.
Toulouse Oliver says this new ranking means New Mexico is using the absolute best practices in the nation when it comes to managing elections. “We’re doing all of the things we can while at the same time protecting the integrity and those were the things that MIT pointed to in this report,” Toulouse Oliver says, “I’m extremely proud, proud of our state, I’m proud of our government, and I’m really proud of our county clerks and poll officials that work so hard everyday to have gotten us to the top of this list.”
The MIT Election Lab noted that the latest EPI also showed improvements in election management across the country. More information about the Elections Performance Index, including details about the methodology and data itself, can be found on their website.
