Dividers at a polling location at the Doña Ana County Government Center. (Photo by Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
More than 660,000 New Mexicans cast their ballots for candidates from local races to the nation’s highest office during the state’s early voting period that startedOct. 8 and ran through Saturday, the secretary state’s office said Monday.
About 530,000 of those ballots – or 80% – were cast in-person. The rest, or about 120,000 voters, were mailed, according to state data. The total from the early voting period accounts for about 48% of New Mexico’s registered voters, per the latest voter roll.
That doesn’t quite beat the record early turnout for 2020 Elections of nearly 800,000 voters. Another change from the pandemic election was the percentage of mail-in ballots, which accounted for 35% of votes cast in 2020, but less than a quarter of votes so far in this election.
Seven counties saw more than half of registered voters vote absentee or early, including Bernalillo, the state’s most populous, with more than 243,000 early votes. More than 50% of registered voters also turned out early in Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Sandoval, Santa Fe and Valencia counties.
Republican candidates have challenged, without evidence, the validity of mail-in ballots or early votes in other states. It’s unclear if that has impacted Republican voters, but just over 75,000 fewer Republicans voted early in 2024 compared to 2020.
Democratic voters accounted for 46% of early voter turnout, compared to 36% from Republicans.
Statewide, the Democratic Party takes the largest slice of the electorate at 42%, while Republicans account for about one-third of registered voters. A quarter of voters decline to state any party affiliation, and Libertarians make up just over 1% while all other parties are just below 1% combined.
Tuesday will be the final day to vote for offices including president, U.S. Senate, Congress and the Legislature.
By the numbers
- The number of in-person early voters grew to 556,026, that’s approximately 100,000 more people who voted early in-person in 2020 and 2016.
- 126,604 New Mexicans requested an absentee ballot, according to the New Mexico Secretary of State. County clerks reported that more than 85% of absentee ballots were already returned by the end of early voting.
- 26,640 New Mexicans used same-day registration during early voting. The majority voters registered with a party, with a slight edge of 41% registering Republican and 34% registering Democrat.
New Mexico has adopted laws to expand early voting and same-day registration and restored voting rights to people with felony convictions in recent years.