Thousands turn out to vote

Even a deadly virus couldn't stop democracy on Tuesday.

Despite COVID-19 fears and restrictions, Tuesday was primary day in New Mexico and thousands of local voters turned out to exercise one of their intrinsic rights as citizens.

"Think of what many countries would give to be able to vote, to have a say-so," Robin Montano, a poll worker at Colonial Park Golf Course's voting center in Clovis, said Tuesday morning. "It's our way to speak out."

The coronavirus has taken over 100,000 American lives just since late winter, making a mail-in voting option imperative for some this year. And while many have taken advantage of that option, others were glad to exercise their rights in person Tuesday.

"Especially excited to be here at the polls, not mailing it in," Terrie Walthers, a Texico resident on disability said before heading into the Texico Community Building to vote Tuesday morning.

"I'm very glad to be here," said retired Texico resident Sharon Bramhall, who was accompanying Walthers into the Texico Community Building. "No mail-in junk; I'm glad to be at the polls."

Though both Walthers and Bramhall are in high-risk territory due to health, neither had any qualms about voting in person, nor about doing so without face coverings.

"I'm not worried about the pandemic much anymore," Walthers said. "I was, but not so much anymore. I stay home most of the time anyway. I take precautions. I don't want a mask; I'm an asthmatic, I don't want the mask. So I'm pretty comfortable. I think if we're smart then we're OK."

"I agree with her," Bramhall said. "I don't think we need to be wearing masks. I have breathing problems, too, but I think this is one of those things that comes and goes, like every other flu we've ever had - Legionnaires ... swine flu, all that stuff. Nobody panicked over that, why panic now? It's an election year."

Walthers and Bramhall said they were much more comfortable voting in person because they don't fully trust mail-in ballots.

"They don't ever get to where they're supposed to be," Bramhall opined. "They get shoved under a table and forgotten about, and then later, burned."

"Too easy to not be counted," Walthers said. "Too easy to be tampered with. It's just better to come in person. Much better."

And people were coming. At Colonial Park, just one of nine Curry County polling centers, more than 100 people had cast ballots by 10:30 a.m.

Polls were open until 7 p.m.

Citizens were so eager that some came to the polls even though they couldn't vote.

"We've had a lot of people that don't understand that it is a primary, and they had not designated a party," Colonial Park presiding judge Edith Ann Bradley said. "So if you have not designated a party, you're not eligible to vote."

Roosevelt County also seemed full of voters early Tuesday afternoon.

"Four-hundred-plus have voted today," Roosevelt County Clerk Stephanie Hicks said, just past noon.

Hicks said there were 10,343 registered voters in Roosevelt County, and among them, 1,200 absentee ballots had been returned, not yet counting Monday and Tuesday. She said 681 had voted early at two Roosevelt sites combined.

"It's hard to decide if it's a good or bad day (turnout-wise)," Hicks said, "because I don't have anything to compare it to, I don't have any other election like this to compare it to. We just don't normally get many absentee ballots, and this one has quite a few."