Early voting draws crowds

CLOVIS - Early voting started Tuesday, and lines were consistently seen out the doors of the Curry County Clerk's Office all week.

The county clerk's office in Roosevelt County also reported lots of eager voters, and staff encouraged people to keep coming by as they said the lines move quickly.

Through Friday, Curry County had 1,346 early voters while Roosevelt County had 1,005. The Curry total is more than half of all early voting at the office in 2018 (2,320) and more than a third of all early voting at the office in 2016 (3,635).

In the 2016 general election over 9,000 people voted early or by absentee ballot in Curry County and over 3,000 did so in Roosevelt County. During the primary election earlier this year approximately 4,000 voters in Curry County and 2,000 in Roosevelt County voted early or by absentee ballot.

Those polled by The News said they were voting early because of concerns about high Election Day turnout and because they said they wanted to be sure their votes were counted.

So far Curry County has almost 3,000 requests for absentee voting ballots and Roosevelt County has over 1,000. Voters are encouraged to request absentee ballots by Oct. 20 and mail them by Oct. 27. Absentee ballots can also be dropped off at county clerk's offices.

A large turnout was expected on a national scale for early in-person and absentee ballot voters as controversy and confusion have followed the subject of voting during the pandemic.

Nathalia Baca, Roosevelt County Chief Deputy Clerk, said she has heard people coming in mentioning that they were voting early because of rumors they have seen about potential voting deterrents.

"I think it's mostly they are listening to wrong information out there on social media," Baca said. "I have heard they are afraid the polls are going to be closed ... because of COVID-19."

Curry County Clerk Annie Hogland echoed Baca's sentiments.

"We have received reports of misinformation seen by voters on social media regarding concerns of early voting being shut down early by a state agency, etc," she said.

The New Mexico Secretary of State's Office addressed such rumors in a Wednesday statement, noting the government will not be shutting down any polling locations, and more early voting locations will be open late this week.

Hogland said a number of people at the polls are there to take advantage of the same-day voter registration service that the county provides in-office during early voting.

The Curry and Roosevelt clerk's offices will not begin tabulating absentee ballots until five days before the election. This procedure follows state guidelines on counties who send out less than 10,000 absentee ballots. A county that sends out 10,000 or more absentee ballots can begin tabulating 14 days before the election.

In previous state press briefings, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver has said it may be possible vote counts aren't completed on election night in some counties, but the priority is to make sure all votes are counted and election night results are unofficial for that and other reasons.

For accurate voting and election information people are encouraged to contact their local county clerk's office - Curry at 575-763-5591 and Roosevelt at 575-356-8562.