9-25-2023 10:28pm

League of Womens Voters Organizing Otero County Candidate Forums

Chris Edwards Editor

The Otero Unit of the League of Women Voters of Southern New Mexico (LWVSNM/Otero Unit) will host three candidate forums within Otero County specific to the upcoming municipal elections. The forums are two in Tularosa and one in Alamogordo, in advance of the Nov. 7 local elections.

The League of Women Voters is a national 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1920, as a grass roots network that believes the freedom to vote is a non-partisan issue. For more than a century, the League has worked to empower voters and defend democracy. As a women-led organization, they encourage everyone to take part in our democracy.

LWVSNM/Otero Unit was formed in January 2023 to further this work in Otero County. These events will be the first nonpartisan forums to be hosted in Otero County this election cycle. This is the first series of forums hosted in collaboration with the local Otero County unit.

The first Tularosa forum will take place Saturday, Sept. 30, at 5:30 p.m. in the Tularosa High School cafeteria. The candidates are running for mayor, trustee, and municipal judge. The second Tularosa forum will be Saturday, Oct. 7, same time and place. The candidates are running for Tularosa School Board. These two forums will be moderated by Jo Galván Nash, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Southern New Mexico. The narrator is communications specialist who served 3 decades in public education. She serves as co-president of the League of Women’s Voters of Southern New Mexico.

The format for the Tularosa forums will be written questions about local issues submitted by the audience as they arrive, and the candidates will have an opportunity to give a position statement.

The Alamogordo forum will be held Tuesday, Oct. 3, at 5:30 p.m., at the Otero Art Space at 1118 Indiana Ave., just behind St. John’s Episcopal Church. This forum will be for candidates running for the Alamogordo School Board. Forum co-sponsors are the National Education Association-Alamogordo and LWVSNM/Otero Unit. The NEA will announce the format at a later date.

As a non-partisan organization, the League of Women Voters encourages members of all parties, or no party, to attend and learn more about your local candidates. These people, your neighbors, will impact your lives in a much closer way than federal or state elections.