Early voting boxes sit at a vote center in Doña Ana County. (Photo by Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
Tuesday is the last day for New Mexico voters to cast a ballot in elections for political offices from the Roundhouse to the White House.
Polls are open throughout the state from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Anyone already waiting in line by 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote. All absentee ballots must be delivered to a local county clerk’s office by 7 p.m. in order to be counted.
Then the numbers will start to roll in. In New Mexico all election results posted are unofficial.
Official results
Results from election night become official after a process of canvassing and certifying the election is complete County officials verify results, and the county board certifies the election, and sends the results to the New Mexico Secretary of State within 10 days.
The State Canvassing Board – made up of the governor, secretary of state, and chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court – meet on the third Tuesday after the election to certify the canvas and declare the official election results for state and federal elections.
How results are released
Shortly after the polls close, the Secretary of State’s office will release unofficial results from early voting, and precincts will start reporting counts.
Just under half of registered voters cast their ballots by mail and in-person during the early election period from Oct. 8 through Saturday.
County poll workers can start verifying absentee ballots as soon as they are returned to the county clerk until five days before the election. The ballots can be inserted into vote counting machines ahead of election day, but the counts cannot actually be released until polls close on Nov. 5.
Vote counts may not completely finish on Election Day, for a few reasons.
Things that can delay results
Senate Bill 180, passed during the 2023 regular legislative session, updated several sections of the state’s election code. The law created an 11 p.m. deadline on election night to count absentee ballots. If there are still uncounted ballots, the absent voter election board, made up of poll workers, is required to recess. The board would then reconvene the next morning at 9:30 a.m.
This replaced the former procedure of continuing the count, often into early morning hours, until it was complete.
In every election there are usually a small number of ballots that need to undergo “curing” – the official term for a ballot that needs fixing by the voter in some small way to be considered complete and counted.
For example, some people forget their signature or last four digits of their social security number on absentee ballots before returning them. This process can take a few days, and counties have 10 days to address any ballots needing curing.
Finally, some races may be too close to call, triggering recounts required by law. An automatic recount is required when the margin between two candidates is less than a quarter of 1% for federal or statewide office. For other New Mexico offices, (like legislative races) the margin of less than 1% will require a recount.
All recounts must take place within 10 days, according to state law.
What races is Source NM covering?
Source NM is covering races for president (see more below) all three congressional districts in the U.S House of Representatives, and one U.S. Senate seat, constitutional amendments and state lawmakers’ races in both chambers of the Roundhouse.
All of the federal races and statewide constitutional amendments are detailed in the 2024 Voter Guide.
There are four ballot questions which would amend the state constitution. This year’s proposals only need a simple majority vote to be approved, because they don’t affect any of the constitution’s sections that require a three-fourths’ majority to change.
There are 32 competitive races in the state House of Representatives, and 15 competitive races for seats in the state Senate.
More on the presidential race
New Mexico has been a reliably blue state in presidential races for 20 years. Democrat Kamala Harris is projected to win the state’s five Electoral College votes over Republican Donald Trump.
How New Mexicans voted for president is expected to be clear by Tuesday night.
But that won’t be the case in every state, particular in some where the race for president is close. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – two swing states – don’t allow mail ballots to be processed until Election Day, which could cause delays for counting the results.
Source NM and the rest of the States Newsroom network will rely on The Associated Press to call the winner of the presidential race, as it has done since 1848. The AP and other news organizations call races because while the Electoral College is set up for states to pick a president, there is no federal entity to count every citizen’s vote.
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