Editor,

The road to political victory is paved not only with bumps in the road but with others who help you on your way by smoothing out your path to your aspired leadership.

The New Mexico primary was of eight in the United States; the other primaries across the nation were also held in Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota.

While voter turnout for state primary races is hard to predict what will happen in the General Election, they also tend to make it difficult to accurately speculate on how the outcome will be on the national level.  This is particularly true in New Mexico which has always been a Democratic stronghold.

In our region there is always the race factor, meaning the ethnic turnout and the voting block that often makes the difference when it comes to the candidate of choice; at times it almost seems to morph into a popularity contest.

The economy, jobs, education, health care, racism, the price of gasoline, and the necessities of life tend to play a role that hits the pocket book hard and when national issues like the recent tariffs on other countries that we import goods from come back to consumer spending and the comfort zone we like to exist in.

In these days of uncertainty, it can be a challenge to take the time to research the candidates and the position they are taking while smiling and asking you to vote for them.  That gut-wrenching moment hits you hard when in doubt standing behind a curtain and placing your vote as if you were at a slot machine pulling the lever and hoping for the jackpot.

According to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s website you can pick up a voter registration application form or print the national form online, fill it out, then mail it to the New Mexico Office of the Secretary of State or your local County Clerk’s Office.  If you are not sure where to send it, you can look it up on the website or call 1-800-477-3632.  The McKinley County Courthouse address is 207 West Hill Ave in Gallup, New Mexico and the phone number is 505-722-4469.

In New Mexico, voter registration eligibility requires you to be a resident of New Mexico; a citizen of the United States; not legally declared mentally incapacitated; not a convicted felon, or a felon who has completed all of the terms and conditions of sentencing and 18 years or older at the time of the next election. The Navajo Nation primary will be held on August 28, 2018.  Find out if you are registered and VOTE.

The unofficial New Mexico Primary Election results for June 5, 2018 can be found at: http://electionresults.sos.state.nm.us/.

Mervyn Tilden,

Church Rock, N.M.