Early voting stays popular in S.F.

Nearly 50,000 in county already have cast in-person, absentee ballots

Mario Perez made a sound like a victory cry after casting his ballot.

“First-time voter,” he yelled, spurring a round of applause from other voters and poll workers in the lobby of the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.

He was one of nearly 10,000 Santa Fe County voters who had cast an early ballot at the convention center for the Nov. 3 general election by around 5 p.m. Monday. The county’s early voting process began at the center Oct. 6 and expanded Saturday to several additional sites in Santa Fe and surrounding communities.

According to the Secretary of State’s Office, more than 48,000 Santa Fe County residents had cast votes early — either in person or by absentee ballot — by Monday morning.

Statewide, 266,522 people had voted by then — nearly 125,000 in person at early voting sites and over 141,600 through ballots sent to them by mail. Alex Curtas, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office, said the number is likely a record by this time, two weeks ahead of Election Day.

A total of 804,073 New Mexicans cast ballots in 2016, he added.

Perez, 19, said he “wanted to get ahead of the pack” in casting a ballot. A student at Regis University in Denver, Perez is living, working and learning remotely in Santa Fe because of the COVID19 pandemic.

“It’s gonna be an interesting election this year,” he said. “This election is definitely gonna shape our future.”

Perez declined to say who he supported in the presidential race.

Curtas said he believes the fiercely contested presidential election between Republican President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, as well as concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic and a possible overload of ballots for poll workers to count on Election Day, have led to the early surge.

“People are ready to go out and get it done,” he said. “It means a lot of people have made up their minds who they are going to vote for.”

The high turnout ahead of Election Day “will free up resources and people and make the counting process easier,” Curtas said.

Several peopled waiting in line to vote Monday at the convention center echoed those thoughts.

“We want to make sure our vote counts by voting early,” said Kathryn Minette, who stood in line next to Stan Biderman. She said she wanted to cast her ballot in person because she doesn’t trust the U.S. Postal Service to deliver absentee ballots on time “under this [presidential] administration.”

Biderman said he is concerned Election Day poll workers will be “overwhelmed” and need extra time to tally up an accurate count.

Biderman, who is 68 and said he was voting for Biden, said this is “the most important election of my life. … The stakes are high.”

Poll workers at the convention center said they have faced no problems of note since early voting started. Voters have been wearing face masks, standing 6 feet apart and showing patience, they said.

Curtas said there have been few reports statewide of early voting issues.

However, several counties reported issues the morning of Oct. 6, when they first opened early voting sites.

As of Saturday, many more Democrats had cast ballots than Republicans in New Mexico. The gap was wide when it came to absentee ballots, with 92,561 Democrats casting mail ballots compared to 28,499 Republicans, Curtas said.

But more Republicans have shown up at the polls for early voting — 59,553 compared to 50,647 Democrats, he said.

Rick Bohn, another early voter at the convention center, said casting his ballot made “the most important day of my life” because of the pandemic, “the guy who is in the White House” and potential postal delivery problems.

“I feel really good that I voted early in person,” he said.