Clerk Projects Turnout of 65% or More

About 34 percent of Bernalillo County’s voters have already cast absentee or early-vote ballots, and Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver expects final turnout to hit about 65 percent to 70 percent.

Participation in early-voting is driving the turnout so far. About 113,000 have cast early ballots so far, and Oliver expects the final number to settle in about 130,000 to 135,000. That’s compared with 126,000 earl votes in the 2008 election.

Absentee balloting, however, is running about half of what it was four years ago, when the county mailed out 96,000 ballots. Fewer than 49,000 have been mailed this year.

Oliver announced the figures in a morning news conference at the county’s South Broadway warehouse, where election workers are already busy with absentee ballots. They are double-checking signatures on the ballot envelopes — a voter must sign the envelope for the ballot to be qualified — and separating the ballots from the envelopes.

Oliver also said:

• Early-voting sites remain open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today (Friday) and tomorrow.
• All of the early-voting sites will also be open on Election Day, along with the other locations, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters can cast ballots at any site, so feel free to head to whichever one is closest to your work or home.
• Don’t forget to sign the outer envelope for your absentee ballot. Once you have, you can either mail it today or tomorrow (postage is $1.10) or drop it off at the clerk’s annex at 620 Lomas NW. On Election Day, you may drop the ballot off at any voting location.
• Call 243-VOTE if you have questions.
• It looks like voters in the Tierra West mobile-home park will not be allowed to vote on municipal issues. The clerk said she expects the voter database to be updated and that any municipal votes already cast by those folks will be deducted from the final vote totals during the canvassing process.