{"id":426491,"date":"2017-09-14T08:44:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T14:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=426491"},"modified":"2017-09-14T08:44:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T14:44:16","slug":"an-invitation-to-restore-democracy-in-dona-ana-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/09\/an-invitation-to-restore-democracy-in-dona-ana-county\/","title":{"rendered":"An invitation to restore democracy in Do\u00f1a Ana County"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:\u00a0<\/strong>Over 90 percent of registered voters in Do\u00f1a Ana County do not vote in local elections. Over 90 percent of people are not being seen, not being heard, and are not being included in the decisions that impact their daily lives — decisions that are meant to increase our quality of life and preserve our dignity.<\/p>\n

\"Rose

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Rose Ann Vasquez<\/p><\/div>\n

This is unacceptable. \u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

Democracy in Do\u00f1a Ana County is in crisis.\u00a0 We need an analysis that applies to our local communities to increase voter participation. False assumptions do not fix problems. If we want to turn that number around in the next few years, then we have to do something different. We cannot begin to solve the problem if we do not know the problem.<\/p>\n

The County Clerk\u2019s Office has begun the work of engaging voters for the purpose of listening to them and developing a local analysis, and we invite you to join us.<\/p>\n

On\u00a0Saturday, Sept.\u00a016<\/span><\/span>\u00a0at\u00a09 a.m.<\/span><\/span>, the Clerk\u2019s Office and the Election Advisory Council have organized\u00a0A Community Conversation: Democracy in Do<\/i>\u00f1<\/i>a Ana County<\/i>, at the Government Center, 845 N. Motel Blvd.<\/a>, to listen to people in our community about why people are not voting, and more importantly, how to inspire them to vote.<\/p>\n

The event is free and open to the public. We have also made efforts in the past several months to reach out to people between the ages of 18-35 who only voted in the general election\u00a0to invite them to join us.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

<\/u>\u00a0I am a native and this is my community. I am employed with the Do\u00f1a Ana County Clerk\u2019s Office and I have learned to manage elections, from local elections to the primary and general elections. Understanding elections from the administrative side has affirmed my confidence in secure elections in our county. In fact, New Mexico is in the top three states for secure elections and best practices, which is refreshing since we are on the bottom of so many other lists.<\/p>\n

The best part of my job is that I get to think about voting every single day. I am passionate about democracy and elections. It is my dream to build a voting culture in Do\u00f1a Ana County. Thus, I want all of us to think about voting, and incorporate it into our daily lives and culture.\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

During my time in the Clerk\u2019s Office and before as a community organizer, I have spoken with hundreds of people about their ideas on voting — everything from why people are not voting to what we should be doing to get people to vote. We have done our best to take all those ideas and turn them into something practical to increase participation. \u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

We work hard toward this vision, and the fact remains that over 90 percent of people are being left out of the process. So we choose to do something different because we do not want to grow another generation of people in our community who do not vote. Our future generations deserve something better than a broken election system.\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

I argue that part of the problem is what I refer to as the \u201cI know\u201d culture fueled by campaign messages, national agendas, and, often, abuse of terms such as \u201cvoter fraud.\u201d On the positive side, there has been much research done at the national level on voting trends as well.<\/p>\n

Although these things may provide some insight, their purpose is\u00a0not\u00a0<\/i>to provide an accurate analysis of voting patterns specific to local communities. So we are required to do the work if we truly want to know why over 90 percent of eligible voters in our county do not vote in local elections. We have to be our own experts.<\/p>\n

Join us in leaving the \u201cI know\u201d culture behind, and let\u2019s get to work building a voting culture in Do\u00f1a Ana County. Let\u2019s begin gathering the evidence by engaging with people 1-1, inviting them to participate, and listening. Then let’s use the information they bring to the table to develop an analysis that applies to our county that leads to real solutions.<\/p>\n

Democracy is local. It is where we elect officials who make decisions to raise our quality of life, and every vote counts in a local election. The Clerk\u2019s Office will work harder to restore democracy in Do\u00f1a Ana County but we cannot do it alone. We\u00a0should\u00a0<\/i>not do it alone, because democracy only works when everyone participates.<\/p>\n

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Rose Ann Vasquez is a native Las Crucen who is passionate about increasing civic engagement in our community. She is also employed in the Bureau of Elections in the Do\u00f1a Ana County Clerk\u2019s Office<\/a>.\u00a0Agree with her\u00a0opinion? Disagree? NMPolitics.net\u00a0welcomes your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democracy only works when everyone participates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":302076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[115,3351],"class_list":["post-426491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}