While voting slowed on Monday as a large winter storm blanketed much of the state, New Mexico remains on a record pace for turnout, and has reached nearly three-quarters of the total 2016 turnout with seven days until election day.
As of Tuesday morning, 592,906 voters had cast ballots, just under 30,000 more than the previous day’s total, the lowest one-day increase since Oct. 14. The Secretary of State released the numbers Tuesday morning.
It included the lowest day of early in-person votes since the start of expanded early voting (17,163) and the lowest total of returned absentee ballots since Oct. 9, just two days after county clerks sent out absentee ballots.
Tuesday is the final day that the Secretary of State says voters should send unreturned absentee ballots by mail. Any voters who haven’t returned absentee ballots after today should return them in person to a polling location.
Early voting, meanwhile, ends on Saturday. Voters can still vote at polling locations on Election Day, Nov. 3.
The number of returned absentee ballots reached 265,739 as of Tuesday morning, while the number of early in-person ballots reached 327,167.
New Mexico broke the record for the most absentee ballots returned last week, and remains on pace to break the record for most early in-person votes—456,762 in 2016.
Democrats still have a narrow majority of all votes cast, with 50.3 percent of all votes, while Republicans have cast 34.69 percent of all votes.
| Party | Early In-Person | Absentee | Total | Percent of Total |
| Democratic | 131,564 | 166,655 | 298,219 | 50.30% |
| Republican | 148,911 | 56,757 | 205,658 | 34.69% |
| Decline to State | 42,549 | 39,130 | 81,679 | 13.78% |
| Libertarian | 2,244 | 1,642 | 3,886 | 0.66% |
| Other | 1,899 | 1,565 | 3,464 | 0.58% |
| Total | 327,167 | 265,739 | 592,906 | n/a |
Democrats maintained their large advantage on returned absentee ballots—they have cast 62.7 percent of all absentee ballots so far, while Republicans have cast 21.35 percent.
There are still about 68,000 unreturned Democratic absentee ballots, to about 4,600 returned absentee ballots among Republicans so far. In all, there are about 115,000 unreturned absentee ballots.
Republicans continued to lead among early in-person votes, with 148,911 to Democrats’ 131,564. Republicans have cast 45.5 percent of all early in-person votes, while Democrats have cast 40.2 percent.
Bernalillo County had by far the most total votes cast already, and the most absentee and early votes cast as of Tuesday morning—211,971 total votes with 112,783 through absentee and 99,188 through early in-person ballots.
When it came to approaching 2016’s turnout, Sandoval County now has the most, with voters already reaching 85.75 percent of the total turnout from that year—and 90.5 percent of the turnout of 2008. This would include not only absentee and early in-person voting but also Election Day voting.
Eddy County is the only other county to reach 80 percent of 2016’s turnout, with 81.74 percent though Grant (79.33 percent) and Santa Fe (78.06 percent) are close.
On the other end of the spectrum, Mora County is at just 43.98 percent of its 2016 turnout, while Hidalgo County is at 49.4 percent.
Correction (10/27): The chart int his story originally had the wrong number for Libertarian absentee ballots. This has been corrected.
