Voter turnout high in parts of Oscar Butler’s district

Voter turnout is heavy – at least for an off-year, special election – in several rural communities to the north and west of Las Cruces.

Those communities all fall in the county commission district of Oscar Vasquez Butler, the most outspoken opponent of the spaceport tax.

Whether that means those voters oppose the tax isn’t yet known. But county Elections Supervisor Lynn Ellins said there have already been 250 voters in Picacho Hills, more than 100 at a precinct at Picacho Middle School, more than 90 at Fairacres Elementary and very heavy turnout in Radium Springs.

None of those communities are the rural colonias that make up the majority of Butler’s district. They are communities in and around the edges of the Las Cruces city limits.

Butler said it’s hard to predict what that means.

“I hope they follow their leadership, and that’s me,” he said. “But this is really up to the voters.”

Butler noted that most in Picacho Hills are Republicans, who are typically anti-tax. But in this case, the chair of the county’s Republican Party and the only Republican on the commission have endorsed the spaceport tax.

No matter what happens, Butler said, those communities with high voter turnout have “already won.”

“It’s empowered many communities,” he said. “It’s great to see that we’re a worthy opponent. And that we’re a worthy opponent means we’ve won already. If we win the election, that’s frosting on the cake.”