Mayoral runoff drives strong early, absentee voting

Robust early voting turnout suggests strong interest in the outcome Tuesday of a feisty runoff contest between incumbent Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and challenger Darren White.

West Side voters also will decide two Albuquerque City Council races in Districts 1 and 3 when they head to the polls Tuesday.

About 83,000 voters, nearly 23% of eligible Albuquerque voters, cast early or absentee ballots as of midday Monday, according to the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office.

That number exceeds the nearly 75,500 early and absentee votes cast in advance of the Nov. 4 election, said Brian Sanderoff, president of Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc.

“We’ve had a robust turnout for early and absentee voting,” Sanderoff said Monday. “We should have total votes cast similar to the Nov. 4 election.”

Helping drive turnout is a choice this year between two experienced and well-known candidates who hold markedly different positions on a variety of issues, Sanderoff said.

“The fact that they’re well known and the fact that they’re so different from each other contributes to the high turnout,” he said. “These are people who really come from different perspectives, different styles, different policy positions. And so the voters have a real choice here.”

Voters will have 50 voting locations available on Tuesday — fewer than the 74 sites available for the regular city election.

Polling sites will be available at Manzano High School, Sandia High School and Rio Grande High School, but other high school locations will not be available. However, many elementary and middle schools will host polling locations.

In the Nov. 4 regular election, Keller received 36% of votes cast compared with 31% for White in a six-way contest. White said his campaign was pleasantly surprised that he trailed Keller by only 5 percentage points.

Two City Council seats also are up for grabs on Tuesday. They are:

• In District 1, Stephanie Telles faces off against Joshua Taylor Neal for the open West Side council district. On Nov. 4, Telles received 36% of the vote to Neal’s 26% in a four-way contest to succeed Councilor Louie Sanchez, who chose not to seek a second term to pursue an unsuccessful bid for mayor.
• In District 3, incumbent Councilor Klarissa Peña faces off against challenger Teresa Garcia. Peña received 41% of the vote to Garcia’s 38% share in a three-way contest. District 3 is located in far southwest Albuquerque.

Turnout was robust in the regular election. Nearly 135,000 votes were cast in the Nov. 4 mayoral race, according to unofficial election results, or about 37.1% of registered city voters. That surpassed the 32% turnout mark from the city’s last mayoral election in 2021.

Albuquerque’s last mayoral runoff election in 2017 brought out 28.7% of eligible city voters. That year, a total of 96,864 votes were cast in a runoff between Keller and City Councilor Dan Lewis. Keller won his first term as mayor in that contest with 62% of the vote to Lewis’ 38%.