As of Wednesday morning, 621,788 New Mexicans had cast ballots for the general election, continuing the trend of heavy early and absentee voting.
With six days until Election Day, statewide turnout is now at 77.33 percent of all votes cast in the 2016 election (including Election Day voting), and 74.61 percent of all votes cast in 2008, which is the state’s highest turnout election.
The numbers were released by the Secretary of State’s office on Thursday morning.
The turnout is now more than the total turnout in the 2000 election in New Mexico and more than any midterm election except 2018.
Three counties did not report any new additional ballots since Tuesday’s update (Cibola, Sandoval and Socorro counties), so the turnout is likely even higher.
A winter storm has hit New Mexico which likely impacted early voting and will continue to do so—the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for areas of eastern New Mexico on Wednesday.
Despite the weather complications, early in-person voting reached 344,436, which is slightly more than on the equivalent date in 2016, which had the most early in-person votes of any election in state history, with 456,762.
Early in-person voting runs through Saturday, Oct. 31.
A total of 277,352 absentee ballots had been returned as of Wednesday morning, which represents 72.38 percent of all absentee ballot requests. New Mexico has already set a record for most returned absentee ballots in any election.
Election officials advise any New Mexicans who have not yet returned their absentee ballots to do so in person, as any absentee ballots sent in the mail may not arrive by Election Day. Any absentee ballot that does not arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day will not be valid.
Voters can return absentee ballots to polling locations, including early voting locations and Election Day voting locations.
Democrats have cast 50.04 percent of all ballots so far, while Republicans have cast 34.7 percent.
| Party | Early In-Person | Absentee | Total | Percent of Total |
| Democratic | 138,266 | 172,875 | 311,141 | 50.04% |
| Republican | 156,144 | 59,628 | 215,772 | 34.7% |
| Decline to State | 45,550 | 41,435 | 86,985 | 13.99% |
| Libertarian | 2,430 | 1,752 | 4,182 | 0.67% |
| Other | 2,046 | 1,662 | 3,708 | 0.60% |
| Total | 344,436 | 277,352 | 621,788 | n/a |
Democrats make up 62.33 percent of all returned absentee ballots, while Republicans make up 21.5 percent.
Of the 82,840 Republicans who requested absentee ballots, 71.98 percent had already returned them, while 73.27 percent of the 235,954 Democrats who requested absentee ballots had returned them.
As of Wednesday morning, Republicans cast 17,878 more early in-person votes than Democrats so far.
Voters in Bernalillo County, which is by far the state’s most populous county, cast 226,073 votes as of Wednesday morning—36.36 percent of all votes in the state.
Voters in Santa Fe County have cast 9.54 percent of the state’s ballots so far, 59,299.
Five counties reached at least 80 percent of 2016’s total turnout: Sandoval (85.75 percent), Eddy (84.95 percent), Santa Fe (82.45 percent), Grant (82.32 percent) and Bernalillo (81.72 percent).
Only Mora County had less than 50 percent of its turnout in 2016, at 45.35 percent. Even so, more than half of Mora County voters cast their ballots on election day in 2016—and the pace of early and absentee voting remained higher than it was that year.
Correction: This post initially misstated how many Republicans had requested absentee ballots and the percentage of those who had returned ballots. This has been corrected.
