[3] The highest point in the county is the summit of Redondo Peak, at 11,254 feet (3,430 m).

[citation needed] Rather than be ceded to neighboring Santa Fe (or Los Alamos) it has remained part of Sandoval, and is owned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and under the care of the San Ildefonso Pueblo.

[4][5] Sandoval County has 12 Indian reservations and two joint-use areas lying within its borders.

[16] Since New Mexico obtained statehood in 1912, Sandoval county has been remarkably accurate in predicting the winner of each presidential race.

The only elections where Sandoval County failed to back the overall winner were in 1912 (Theodore Roosevelt won the state on the Bull Moose ticket), 1944, 1968, 2016, and 2024.

Hillary Clinton won a plurality, but not majority, of votes in Sandoval county in 2016 due to Gary Johnson (who previously served as Governor of New Mexico) winning an abnormally high number of votes that election.

Most parts of the city of Rio Rancho vote majority Republican and this is where this party's strength lies.

Otherwise, the more remote parts of the Jemez Mountains and the town of Cuba trend Republican.

However, this is offset by Corrales, Placitas, San Ysidro, and all the Pueblos in the county, as well as many other rural areas which trend Democratic.

Bernalillo has also long been a strongly Democratic region, though in the 2024 election it saw a large shift toward the Republican party, as did the pueblos of Zia and Kewa (Santo Domingo) in particular.

[17] School districts include:[19] Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools include: Atrisco Heritage Academy HS, Kirtland Air Force Base, and National Museum of Nuclear Science & History are adjacent to but outside of the city limits.Rio Grande HS and Sandia Peak Tramway are near but not in the city limits.