Democrats seem more motivated to get out the vote in Bernalillo County, if early voting numbers headed toward the end of early voting are any indication.
Out of 33,812 voters who cast their ballots early in the county, Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver said 70 percent are Democrats, while 30 percent are Republicans.
The turnout is much bigger than the last presidential election year.
“That’s almost twice as many as we had as of the same time period in 2012,” Toulouse Oliver told NM Political Report. Bernalillo County is the most populous county in the state.
The breakdown on the 6,866 returned absentee ballots are closer, but Democrats still have the edge. Of those, 59 percent are Democrats and 41 percent are Republicans.
Toulouse Oliver’s office sent out just over 11,000 absentee ballots.
The numbers are as of Friday at 9:30 a.m.
Only Democrats and Republicans can participate in their own party’s primaries in New Mexico. Those registered to third parties or decline-to-state at all cannot participate in the primaries.
One reason may be because Donald Trump is the only remaining Republican candidate while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders continue the Democratic campaign into the final day of state primaries on June 7.
Another is there are a number of contested Democratic primaries; there are far fewer Republican contested primaries and no Republican incumbent in the entire state faces a primary challenge.
Early voting ends Saturday. Voters will then be able to cast ballots next Tuesday.
Correction: This originally said no incumbent in the entire state faces a primary challenge; it should have said no Republican incumbent.
