FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2025
CONTACT: Jeremy Gruber
jgruber@openprimaries.org
(609) 610-1602
New Mexico Governor Signs Open Primaries Bill
Over 330,000 Independent Voters Enfranchised
Santa Fe, NM –New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed SB 16 into law, a historic bipartisan reform that gives more than 330,000 independent voters — who make up nearly 25% of New Mexico’s electorate — the right to vote in the state’s primary elections starting in 2026.
New Mexico joins 36 other states that have opened their primaries; with Alaska, Colorado, Maine , St. Louis, and Washington DC having done so in the last five years.
“New Mexico made history today,” said Sila Avcil, Executive Director of New Mexico Open Elections and NM Voters First. “Thanks to our supporters, partners, coalition members, and legislators, we have taken a monumental step towards hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans gaining more access to some of our state’s most consequential elections. New Mexico, and our democracy, is better for it.”
Open Primaries has been a partner in this campaign since 2015 – organizing citizens, educating lawmakers, developing legal and policy analysis and building public trust. This year, our Let Us Vote campaign put New Mexico’s independents center stage across the state, from the pages of newspapers and across social media, to the statehouse with written testimony and meetings with legislators, letters, emails and phone calls.
“Closed primaries are simply unsustainable if we want to maintain our democracy. Independent voters are the largest and fastest growing group of voters in America today. This has been a ten year collaboration between local and national leaders to give independent voters the same voting rights that party voters have enjoyed for decades, “ said Jeremy Gruber, SVP of Open Primaries.
“Amidst all the turmoil in national politics, the American people are going independent. Every day, 10,000 American citizens change their voter registration from D or R to independent. This shift in attitude has been ignored for many years, but as we see in New Mexico, that is starting to change. Independent voters are not disconnected. They want to have a voice. But they don’t want to join a political party to exercise their opinion.” – John Opdycke, President of Open Primaries.
Available for interview:
- Sila Avcil, New Mexico Open Elections/NM Voters First ED (Albuquerque, NM)
- Bob Perls, Founder of New Mexico Open Elections (Albuquerque, NM)
- Jeremy Gruber, Open Primaries SVP (Brooklyn, NY)
- John Opdycke, Open Primaries President (Chicago, Illinois)
Open Primaries is a national, nonprofit organization. More information can be found at www.openprimaries.org