Approximately 48.2% of New Mexico registered voters have already cast a ballot in the 2025 general election. According to the Secretary of State’s office, 663,874 votes were cast via early or absentee voting before early voting ended on Saturday. The 663,874 figure is lower than four years ago when roughly 785,000 votes were cast early in 2020. In 2020, 928,230 votes, representing 68.7% of all registered voters, were cast in the 2020 general election. Notwithstanding, a strong Election Day turnout will likely propel the state past 2020 turnout levels.
Saturday, November 2, was the last day of early voting in New Mexico before Tuesday’s November 5 general election. A record number of New Mexicans had already cast their votes. Approximately 41% of New Mexicans or 563,000 voters had participated in absentee or early voting, with 47.1% registered as Democrat, 36.7% registered as Republican and 15% registered as independent or decline to state.
Bernalillo County posted one of the highest early vote turnout rates in New Mexico this year, as more than 60% of registered Democrats and Republicans alike in the state’s most populous county voted before Election Day. Other counties with high turnout rates so far include Santa Fe, Valencia, Sandoval and Los Alamos, where 68% of registered Democrats have already voted.
Republicans voted at a slightly higher rate than Democrats statewide, as about 55.9% of registered Republicans cast their votes before Election Day compared to roughly 52.1% of Democrats. Democrats still cast about 64,000 more votes than Republicans statewide, since Democrats entered this year’s general election with a significant voter registration advantage.
According to Secretary of State’s Office, of the state’s more than 1.3 million registered voters, about 42.9% are Democrats and 31.6% are Republicans. The remaining voters either declined to state a party affiliation, are registered Libertarians or are affiliated with a minor political party.
Brian Sanderoff, President of Research & Polling Inc., which does polling for the Albuquerque Journal, had this to say about the early voting trends:
“Perhaps the most interesting thing we’ve seen thus far is that Republicans are voting at a higher rate than Democrats, showing that 47.5% of the Republicans have already voted, compared to 45% of the Democrats and 26% of the independents. … So Republicans are voting at a higher rate than Democrats who have voted thus far. … Among the people who vote, more will have voted before Election Day than on Election Day. … People in New Mexico have become very accustomed to voting before Election Day.”
Counties with legislative battles are more likely to vote in higher numbers. Sanderoff said this:
“Sometimes legislative battles can drive competition. The legislators are at ground zero, they’re knocking on the doors there, and they can really play a much more efficient role in driving turnout.”
Voters who still have an absentee ballot can drop it off at any polling location. The ballot must be delivered by 7 p.m. on Election Day. You can track the status of your absentee application or ballot through the Secretary of State’s Ballot Scout module at sos.nm.gov/trackmyballot.
The link to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:
https://www.sos.nm.gov/sos-static/election-day-november-5-2024.html
https://www.krqe.com/news/politics/us-elections-united-states/early-voting-wraps-up-in-new-mexico/
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The political day of reckoning is finally here. The most contentious and closest race for United States President will finally come to an end. With any luck, we will no longer have to endure the crude, unhinged campaign behavior, and repeated nasty lies of a politcal dotard that has a cult following.
New Mexicans can take great comfort that as of today, November 5, gone will be all the nasty, negative political ads, especially those repeatedly aired by Democrat Gabe Vasquez and Republican Yvette Herrell attacking each other. We will finally stop having to see and hear Herrell say with a smirk on her face “I wish we could have ended all abortions in this state”. With any luck we will not be hearing from her ever again.