Riding the rails with New Mexico voters • Source New Mexico

Over the last eight years, I’ve spent many hours outside polling places from Albuquerque to Española begging voters for interviews.

This time I tried something different. The day before New Mexico’s primary election I rode the Rail Runner from end to end, from Santa Fe to Belen to talk with voters along the way.

It was surprising how open people were to talk with a stranger on a moving train about their political views.

The people on the train are from different backgrounds and almost all said the same thing: they are frustrated with their choices for who will lead their government.

‘I wish there were more options’

Lauren Hartzell, a 19-year-old biology and chemistry student at the University of New Mexico, took the Rail Runner down to the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge to study rats.

We spoke as the Rail Runner took us through Kewa Pueblo, Sandoval County, and the Town of Bernalillo.

Hartzell said she will be voting in the general election, but she forgot about the primary, and said she didn’t know whether she could vote Tuesday. This year will be her first presidential election; her first time voting was in 2022.

“I remember when I turned 18, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m really glad that I’m finally old enough, but it had kind of fallen off my radar,’” Hartzell said. “American politics are not a very high priority in my life. My car’s broken down, I’m doing a lot of work stuff, and traveling a bunch.”

Asked what would make it easier to vote, Hartzell suggested more education on how to follow the voting process. Without the internet, she said, she wouldn’t know what to do.

Hartzell said she knows what she’s signing up for with Biden and Trump in the presidential election.

“It’s annoying to see the same two people who we were already upset with them being the only two choices in the last election,” Hartzell said. “I don’t know if it’s just because I’m a young person myself, but I’m really annoyed with seeing just old people in office. I wish there were more options out there.”

Hartzell said she wants to prepare a bit more for this election by researching local candidates and issues like cleaner energy.

“I think we need to start really going in a different direction — as a state, as a country, as a people,” she said. “As a biologist, I really care about the planet and I really don’t want to see species dying off.”

She said she thinks nuclear energy seems like a better option than oil and gas.

Hartzell said she thinks there are plenty of people out there who could run for office, but do not have the money to run a campaign.

She said she thinks it’s important for everyone to vote because the U.S. was built on democracy and without doing so, one’s voice on laws and policy won’t be heard.

“I would encourage everyone to vote, not just people I agree with,” she said. “I think it is really important to vote, get out there and voice our opinions.”

Political exhaustion

Starla Martinez, a student and a mother, was headed back south to her home in Albuquerque after a job interview in Santa Fe.

We spoke as we were passing through the Village of Los Ranchos and the North Valley, in the last few minutes before she had to depart.

Martinez said she’s voted in-person in every previous presidential election she could, starting in 2008, but didn’t vote in this year’s primary. Martinez said she will vote in the general election, but she doesn’t know who to vote for yet.

“I’m a person of color, I am kind of tired of seeing old white men in office,” Martinez said. “They don’t represent all of us, they don’t really care about what all of us think and say. Lobbying makes things incredibly difficult, because they have a voice over the people who should have a voice.”

Martinez said she feels a sense of political exhaustion she shares with friends and family.

“People who are stark Democrats, and stark Republicans, are like, ‘All the choices are bad,’” Martinez said. “I wish they could require politicians to get certified to be able to run. It seems like nobody’s really in touch with what’s happening with real people.”

She said this feeling applies to the presidential candidates and local elected officials.

“It doesn’t seem like they’re listening to their constituents over what they want to do,” Martinez said.

Martinez said she believes the U.S. needs “to break away from a two-party system.”

Even with the existing third parties, Martinez said, all the money gets pumped into the two major ones, “so we really don’t learn about who else we have to vote for.”

‘I’d probably vote for Trump, which does not make me happy’

On the way back up from Belen headed northbound, I spoke with Lily Rich, a 19-year-old registered independent from Albuquerque and a student researcher in atmospheric physics at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro.

This is the first election in which Rich is eligible to vote. She registered shortly after becoming a legal adult. Rich said she probably would not vote in the primary on Tuesday, but said she would feel differently with better candidates.

“I think voting is important, and I plan to do so, but as of now, with all the changes in what’s going on, I don’t feel like I have all the information or time to make a decision about who would be best.”

Rich said information about how the primary works should be more widespread, and there should be a better way to educate and inform young voters.

“I think having a source that’s unbiased where you can find all the information without people’s own opinions being in there would be really helpful, because these topics are really heated,” Rich said. “Especially at my age, where a lot of people are super liberal, it’s really hard to tell what’s going on.”

Rich said she thinks both Trump and Biden are bad candidates.

“I really don’t know, but I’d probably vote for Trump, which does not make me happy to say, but I don’t like how Biden has run this country,” she said.

Rich said a hypothetical candidate who would excite her would be a moderate who isn’t anti-abortion, is not racist, is not sexist, and who would “help America continue to flourish, but not have all these foreign problems right now.”

“I don’t completely agree with the left’s social views because I feel like they’re a little bit radical sometimes, but I don’t agree with the right’s social views either,” she said. “On some policies, it’s just better to be in the middle.”

‘The system is pretty much run by white people, for white people’

On the second half of the journey back north, the fourth person I spoke with was Kanji Tanka, who was on his way home to Santa Fe. The setting sun filled the train car with an orange and yellow light.

Tanka (Lakota Oyate) and his partner voted by absentee ballot last week. Tanka said his partner did a lot of research into her choices, while he did what he has done in all previous elections: he voted for all Democratic candidates, because “There’s nothing else to vote for.”

“There’s not much hope for Biden, but it’s better than having no hope at all,” Tanka said. “Basically, the system is pretty much run by white people, for white people. People like me, women and children, we’re at the bottom of the pile.”

Tanka said he has not voted for most of his life, but decided to vote in this election because “everybody keeps telling me, ‘your vote counts.’”

“You know what? For Native Americans, it’s highly doubtful,” he said. “It might help a little, but we have a government system — doesn’t matter who’s running it — they’ve always been anti-Indian.”