League of Women Voters sets April 30 candidate forum, voter guide distribution

Los Alamos voters will get a direct look at the county’s most consequential local races before the June 2 primary, with the League of Women Voters of Los Alamos holding its candidate forum April 30 at the UNM-LA Student Center and distributing its 2026 voter guide the same day in the Los Alamos Daily Post.

The forum brings together the candidates for Los Alamos County Council and Los Alamos County Sheriff, the two contests most likely to affect day-to-day decisions on taxes, schools, public safety, land use, fiscal policy and long-term planning. County officials say all invited candidates have accepted, which gives voters a full field to compare in one place instead of piecing together answers from mailers and social media.

The county council race includes Jason Alan Chappel, Theresa A. Cull, Joseph F. Granville, David E. Hampton, Melanee M. Hand, Steven S. Lynne and Eric Roland Stromberg. The sheriff race includes Antonio L. Maggiore and David Izraelevitz. For a county where local primaries can be decided by a relatively small electorate, the forum offers one of the clearest chances to hear how each candidate would handle the pressures that shape budgets, public safety and growth.

That small-electorate reality is not abstract. In the June 4, 2024 Democratic primary, Los Alamos County recorded 2,764 total voters cast, including 1,763 Democratic county-council ballots. In a community this size, a few hundred votes can separate a routine race from a decisive one, which is why the League’s forum has become a central stop for voters who want to compare candidates before ballots are cast.

The timing also matters. The county clerk’s office says New Mexico’s 2026 primary election is Tuesday, June 2. Early voting begins Tuesday, May 5, at the Los Alamos Municipal Building. Expanded early voting starts Saturday, May 16, at both the Municipal Building and White Rock Town Hall. The last day to request an absentee ballot is Tuesday, May 19, and the last day of early voting is Saturday, May 30.

Los Alamos County says New Mexico is now operating under semi-open primary rules for 2026. After May 5, voters cannot change party registration for the primary, and registered decline-to-state or independent voters may choose one major-party ballot. That deadline makes the weeks around the forum especially important for anyone still deciding how, or whether, to participate in the primary.

The League’s April 30 event continues a familiar local civic pattern, with UNM-LA serving as a recurring forum site and the voter guide again paired with the Daily Post. The Los Alamos High School Hilltalkers have served as timekeepers in past forums, underscoring how deeply the event is rooted in local civic life just as the campaign season enters its most consequential phase.