City clerk: Early election votes jump to nearly 250

Early voting for Portales Sunday alcohol sales sped up dramatically the last two days, according to Joan Martinez-Terry Portales city clerk.

“We got 38 voters on Thursday and that’s good because initially we were averaging 20 voters a day at the beginning,” Martinez-Terry said.

Martinez-Terry said 248 residents have voted so far in the election, jumping extensively from the count of 105 voters on Tuesday.

She said two young voters who came to vote Friday, the last day for early voting, said they were not going to vote in the election until they received an advertisement in the mail encouraging them to vote against the Sunday alcohol sales.

“There were two young people who said they voted because they were just not happy about receiving that card in the mail,” Martinez-Terry said.

Martinez-Terry said although numbers are still far from the 6,007 registered voters in Portales, she has high hopes there will be a much higher turn out Tuesday for election day.

“Because of the holidays and the weather, I think that kept people from coming early,” she said. “I hope next week is better. It looks better now.”

Martinez-Terry said the voting center for the election will be the Memorial Building on the corner of East 7th Street and Abilene Avenue and voters can vote between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

She said the ballot reads “Shall ‘Sunday Liquor Sales in Licensed Restaurants’ be allowed within the local option district of the City of Portales?”

Voters can mark either the “For” or “Against” check boxes beneath the question.

Martinez-Terry said she has no prediction on the outcome.

“That’s why we hire poll workers is so we can get an objective count,” Martinez-Terry said. “We won’t know until after seven (7 p.m.) on Tuesday.”