Socorro & Sunland Park - The Perfect Example

The city of Socorro, and its cross-town step-sister city of Sunland Park are both perfect examples of why people need to be engaged voters.

Especially because they are both communities that are predominantly Latino, are a mix or rural and metro, and are on the lower end of the socio-economic scale and yet possess tremendous potential.

And they are both plagued with scandal.

They also have crappy voter participation.

That's a big part of the reason they have that problem. According to the 2010 census there are 32,013 people in Socorro. Around 14,500 people registered to vote, which is less than half the population. A large issue is obviously eligibility and that might explain why there are so few registered voters in Socorro.

But here is a stat that for which there is no excuse. Only about 1,400 people in the entire city are regular voters. And by regular voters, I mean they are voters that voted in at least 2 of the last 3 elections or better.

Commonly referred to as 2D's and 3D's.

That's right 32,013 people in the town...and only about 1,400 people regularly participate in elections. And thats just the number of people that vote in regular elections. I'm betting the number of people who vote in municipal elections is pretty close, maybe a little higher.

But if you are dealing with a universe of 1,400 voters in a given race, then your win number is only 701 votes. Essentially that means 701 people dictate what happens in that town from an electoral standpoint. Do you know how easy it is to run things when you only have to get 701 out of 32,013 people in a town to agree with you?

Let's put that in to perspective.

How many friends do you have on Facebook?

I am by no means a friend whore on Facebook, though I am more accepting of friends the past couple of months than I traditionally have been. I have 711 friends on Facebook. I know a whole lot of people that have many more Facebook friends than I do.

Get my point?

Its not that hard to run things and basically operate with impunity if there is no one there to answer to.

Former Mayor Willie Gandara won election as Mayor with only 651 votes in his favor. And you only need a couple hundred votes to be an Alderman in Socorro. Hell, most of us have that many cousins.

No one elected can say they have a mandate. In fact the only mandate in those communities as long as there is such a disengaged electorate is apathy. I firmly believe that is why controversy happens so frequently in communities like Socorro and Sunland Park.

I sound like a freakin' broken record, but the only cure for corruption comes from the people. It doesn't come from the media breaking open stories about corruption. It doesn't come from praying the rosary. Actually, that would help.

It most certainly doesn't come from people throwing up their hands and saying "ya para que? todos son chuecos!" (Something I hear from more and more voters in Socorro these days, especially following the raid on City Hall.)

It comes from people saying "ya basta!" It takes people being sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Imagine if you doubled the number of people who regularly vote. You'd make it that much harder for people to operate the way they have. Imagine if candidates had to knock on more doors. More people would have a chance to size up a candidate in person. I guarantee if we made it harder to win elections we'd end up with a better product.

The Police Department has something interesting on the back part of their patrol units. It says "Socorro, a City With a Mission".

The mission of that city should be to increase voter participation.

For God's sake people. Its for your own good.

Its not that hard to change your towns from being the perfect example of what is wrong in politics to what is right about politics. It just takes a few people and their neighbors to make change happen.