October 28, 2016

Over 240,000 New Mexicans have already voted

From Monday through Thursday, another 146,001 voters cast ballots in New Mexico through either early-in person voting or by returning absentee ballots, bringing the total to over 240,000 votes so far. The numbers, provided by the Secretary of State’s office, are as of end of day Thursday. In all, 240,433 voters have already cast ballots, […]

Matthew Reichbach

From Monday through Thursday, another 146,001 voters cast ballots in New Mexico through either early-in person voting or by returning absentee ballots, bringing the total to over 240,000 votes so far.

The numbers, provided by the Secretary of State’s office, are as of end of day Thursday.

In all, 240,433 voters have already cast ballots, with more than a week left of early in-person voting and a week and a half until election day.

Early in-person and absentee votes cast, as of end of day 10/27/16.

Early voting has again proven far more popular than absentee voting. So far, 207,214 New Mexicans have cast in-person ballots through early voting, while 33,219 returned absentee ballots. A total of 63,471 New Mexico voters have requested absentee ballots, so the absentee numbers are likely to increase before Election Day on Nov. 8 but will again fall far short of early voting numbers.

Both Republicans and Democrats are outstripping their voter registration percentages while independents lag far behind. As of Sept. 30, Democrats made up 46.78 percent of registered voters, Republicans made up 31.12 percent and those not of either major party make up 22.1 percent. Final registration numbers from Oct. 11 are still not available online.

Votes cast early in-person, as of end of day 10/27/16.

Among all ballots cast so far, Democrats make up 52.47 percent, Republicans makes up 34.5 percent and decline-to-state and minor party voters combined make up 13.03 percent.

As of Thursday, Democrats maintained their advantage in both early voting and returned absentee ballots.

So far, 110,516 Democrats have voted early in-person throughout the state, which makes up 54.92 percent of the total early vote. The 70,171 Republicans who have voted make up 33.86 percent of the early vote and the 26,527 early voters who are not members of either major party make up 12.67 percent.

Returned absentee ballots, as of end of day 10/27/16.

Republicans are running closer among returned absentee ballots, but still trail. Of the 33,129 returned absentee ballots, Democrats make up 15,635 (47.19 percent), Republicans make up 12,783 (38.48 percent) and non-major party voters make up 4,801 (14.45 percent).

Votes by day

Monday was the day with the most voters taking advantage of early voting; 46,165 voters cast votes early Monday, compared to 25,194 Tuesday, 34,663 Wednesday and 32,247 on Thursday.

Most absentee ballots also came in on Monday. Of those returned, 7,794 absentee ballots came in Monday, 1,193 were returned Tuesday, 4,577 were returned Wednesday and 4,168 were returned Thursday.

Democratic votes exceeded Republican votes on each day this week.

Early in-person voting began on Oct. 11, but in just one location in each county. On Oct. 22, early voting expanded to more locations.

In 2012, 374,574 voters cast ballots early in-person, making up 47.62 percent of the total vote. More the 323,100 cast on Election Day (41.08 percent) and much more than the 88,848 (11.3 percent) absentee ballots cast.

A total of 786,522 voters cast ballots in 2012, short of the record 833,365 votes in 2008.

Early voting ends Nov. 5, one week from Saturday. Absentee ballots must be returned by close of polls on Election Day on Nov. 8.