Here, SFR offers a few voting tips from the county clerk and the New Mexico Secretary of State, who oversees voting statewide.

No matter your partisan leanings, the 2012 election cycle—nasty, costly and seemingly interminable—probably makes you want to just give up and have a drink. Fortunately, you can. The state law banning drinking on Election Day has been defunct for more than a decade, and at least one local bar is taking advantage of that: the Inn of the Anasazi, which will offer politically themed drinks on Election Day—Tuesday, Nov. 6.

In a scathing dissent from the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, former US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that, by equating corporations’ campaign spending to individuals’ free speech rights, the Court’s opinion was “a rejection of the common sense of the American people.” The ruling prompted an explosion of campaign spending: The 2012 elections are expected to be the most expensive in US history, and multimillion-dollar TV attack ad campaigns are already flooding airwaves—even as Congress becomes increasingly unproductive. In such a climate, it can be tempting to repudiate the whole charade and refuse to vote. But to disenfranchise ourselves is to abrogate our duty as citizens of a republic.

Flies buzzed around the heads of attendees seated on the patio of Socorro’s Capitol Bar, a brick saloon near the town’s plaza where, at the turn of the 20th century, the bar’s one-time owner, Justice of the Peace Amos Green, held court and jailed the guilty. More than 100 years later, US Senate candidate Martin Heinrich was on trial by a Democratic base at a quick meet-and-greet in a county where more than 75 percent of voters pulled the lever for Democratic US Sen. Jeff Bingaman in 2006. It was a fundraiser attended by a few dozen of the Democratic faithful. Suggested donation: $25.

In the Democratic primary race for 1st Judicial District Attorney, challenger Lloyd Drager has made much of the “defense attorney” background of incumbent Angela “Spence” Pacheco’s administration. Whether it’s due to a shift in the office’s philosophy or not, court statistics from Pacheco’s administration compared to that of her predecessor Henry Valdez do show a marked decrease in filing of felony cases overall, with a particular decline in prosecution of sexual assault and DWI crimes.