"While New Mexico’s minority populations are no strangers to attempts to limit their voting rights, its Native American residents continue to add registered voters to the rolls. These voters may well become the swing vote in a swing state, and, if they repeat their 2008 voting pattern, would assist the Democratic Party in garnering the state’s five electoral votes in November’s election as it did in 2008.

"In New Mexico, we actually have had very similar experiences to the South when it comes to discriminative, active and intentional, systemic and institutional, with regard to Native voting," said Alvin Warren, executive vice president of Blue Stone Strategy Group, a consulting firm that specializes in Native American issues.

“Since 1975, several New Mexico counties that have been under federal monitoring for voting rights violations,” Warren noted. “I'm proud to tell you, though, that after all of that, we are in this incredible period of resurgence; of Native people regaining our voice and our vote. We have 65,000 registered Native American voters in the state, which I think is going to go up, probably to 70,000 to 75,000. We have 11 counties that have a significant Native presence, 91 precincts.""

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Native American Voters No Longer Easily Suppressed in New Mexico (America's Wire 5/8)