County: About 67,000 APS ballots still need to be sent

Clerk’s office hopes to have them all mailed by Friday

Thousands of ballots still need to be sent out in Albuquerque Public School’s special mail-in election.

Nathan Jaramillo, bureau of elections administrator with Bernalillo County, said about 67,000 ballots still need to get to voters in the APS district boundaries.

The Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office is anticipating getting those out by Friday.

Initially, the clerk’s office was aiming to get out an estimated total of 417,000 ballots out by Tuesday.

As of Wednesday, approximately 350,000 ballots had been sent for the APS mill levy and bond election.

Voters are deciding on $900 million over the next six years through mill levies and bond sales. That money would go toward building maintenance, finishing projects, the start of new projects and increased school security, among other categories.

The election ballots are being mailed to residences in batches by which APS district they’re in.

The process kicked off on Jan. 8, which is the earliest date the ballots could have been pushed out per state law.

However, Jaramillo said the ballots in some larger districts had to be split up and it slowed the process.

“Unfortunately, some districts were large enough to where we had to split them up,” he said.

For instance, he said APS’ District 2, which includes the Taylor Ranch area, had

half its ballots sent out Jan. 11 and the other half sent three days later.

For a household with multiple registered voters, each voter will get an individual ballot.

If people don’t get an anticipated ballot, Jaramillo said they can call the clerk’s office at 505-243-VOTE.

He also said about 11,000 ballots have bounced back to the clerk’s office because of issues like a change of address that wasn’t updated on voter registration.

Those residents can still vote by calling 505-243-VOTE and someone will help them get their ballot.

All of the ballots still must be mailed back in time for the county clerk to receive them by 7 p.m. on Feb. 5.

Even with some ballots going out later than expected, Jaramillo said everyone should have enough time to vote and if there’s any concern the ballots can be dropped off in person to the county Clerk’s Office or Voting Warehouse.

“I believe everyone we send the ballots out to will have ample time to return the ballots by the election day deadline,” he said.

Jaramillo said about 11,000 ballots have already been completed and returned.