NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – It’s a historic year for New Mexico’s voter turnout. That includes the state’s biggest county, which Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover says has blown past its previous record.

She attributed part of the boost to the large number of absentee voters. That could be one reason why today there were a lot of county polling locations with very short wait times or none at all.

On Tuesday county-wide, 32,890 people voted in person, including a few hundred who dropped off ballots at the contact-free drive-thru location off 5th Street and Marquette. Stover said she’d like to have more of those sites in the future.

Around the Albuquerque metro, Sky News captured the busiest polling locations, mostly on the west side, including 98th and Central, Cibola High School, and Petroglyph Plaza but there weren’t long lines.

In total this election, the county had 70.5 percent voter turnout.

“That beats the Obama turnout, which was the biggest one before now. And you, know, when Obama ran, they didn’t have a pandemic. They didn’t have to wear masks, they didn’t have to social distance,” Stover said.

At last check, the Secretary of State’s office did not have final voter turnout numbers statewide but believe more than 900,000 New Mexicans have voted this election.

An estimated 120,000 of them voted in-person on Tuesday.

Four years ago, 270,000 New Mexicans voted on Election Day, so COVID has significantly boosted the early voting numbers.

As for problems at the poll Tuesday, Stover said her office received calls of voters complaining about some people’s behavior at the polls, but nothing that got out of hand.

“We’ve had calls about people mouthing off to each other, things you’d typically expect during an election season. I don’t think we’ve had anything really bad, just people getting on each other’s nerves a little bit,” Stover explained.

Meanwhile, in Santa Fe County, voters were temporarily turned away from the Nambe Community Center polling site that was having internet issues. The signature pads were not working so voters went to other locations.

Tuesday afternoon, the New Mexico Secretary of State said there are reports in other states of robocalls telling people to “Stay safe, stay home.’ There’s no indication that those calls have come into New Mexico, and she reiterated that all local polling sites are COVID-safe to vote or drop off absentee ballots.

The District Attorney’s Office has not received any calls about voter intimidation directly through its election protection hotline but said it is looking into at least six reports sent over from the County Clerk’s Office.

Local Election News