“I really hope people would understand how important this really is to our congressional district right in the middle of the state, the largest population. We need all the representation in Washington that we can get, ”Stover said.

There are four candidates vying for the seat: Democrat Melanie Stanbury, Republican Mark Moores, Libertarian Chris Manning and Independent Aubrey Dunn. There are also two inscriptions.

According to initial figures from the Secretary of State’s office, the Democrats in CD-1 seem to have more than doubled the Republicans’ vote, from nearly 35,000 to 16,000.

“The turnout is extremely low, even for a special election, in my opinion right now in New Mexico, which really suggests that everyone in New Mexico, there is no campaign that is mobilizing really people, ”said Lonna Atkeson, professor of political science. at UNM and executive director of the Institute for Social Research.

CD-1 encompasses parts of the counties of Bernalillo, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Torrance and Valencia.

The Stover County Clerk said it was a good idea for people to verify their district.

“We have, of course, put in place COVID-19 restrictions above all yes with masks, no with masks, so our election officials will be wearing masks,” she said. “And we’re going to ask the public to just out of respect for our polling officers or other people in the facility, but we can’t do them.”

Historically, New Mexico has a lower turnout in these types of elections. Stover said that right now the turnout is 13-15%. The turnout in the November general election was 77%.