New Mexicans are headed to the polls on election day —and it appears voters are out in full force in some of the state’s most populous counties.
In Bernalillo County, more than 1,000 voters turned out within 15 minutes of the polls opening. A spokesman for the Bernalillo County Clerk’s office said within the first hour, voting convenience centers saw about 4,000 voters overall.
As of 11:00 a.m., four hours after voting convenience centers opened, 14,275 votes were cast in Bernalillo County.
Bernalillo County has also received 222 returned absentee ballots.
Update: As of 1:00 p.m., 22,047 voters cast ballots in person, while the absentee number did not change.
Update: As of 3:00 p.m, 29,880 voters cast ballots in person on election day in Bernalillo County. The county did not provide numbers on returned absentee ballots.
Update: As of 5:15 p.m, 41,075 ballots were cast in person on election day in Bernalillo County.
In Doña Ana County, 4,651 voters cast ballots as of 11:18 a.m. in addition to the nearly 9,000 early votes according to a staff member in the County Clerk’s office.
Update: As of 1:45 p.m., in Doña Ana County, 7,473 votes were cast in person. The total absentee ballots were 839.
Update: As of 3:00 p.m., in Doña Ana County, 9,146 votes were cast in person, along with 462 provisional ballots. The total absentee ballots were 844.
Update: As of 4:30 p.m., Doña Ana County collected 11,043 in-person ballots which equates to about a 26 percent of the turnout so far.
A representative from the Santa Fe County Clerk’s office told NM Political Report they do not have real time numbers and will not have voting totals until after the polls close.
These are just the numbers on election day. In Bernalillo County, for example, 48,106 voters cast early ballots and the county received 8,114 returned absentee ballots.
In Doña Ana county, 8,658 voters cast ballots early and the county received 821 absentee ballots before election day.
Absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls at 7:00 p.m. tonight to be counted.
Matthew Reichbach contributed to this story.
