As early voting ends, ballot processing and challenges start

Nov. 5—Saturday is the last day of early voting in New Mexico.

The final day comes three days before the Nov. 8 election and a day after election workers began processing absentee ballots.

"Voting early is a great way to avoid waiting in those Election Day lines," said Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark.

The downtown polling place has seen a steady stream of voters since early voting opened Oct. 11, Clark said. By Friday, more than 40,000 Santa Fe County voters had cast their ballots, including more than 10,000 voters at the county clerk's office alone.

"Turnout in Santa Fe County has exceeded many expectations," she said.

Statewide, 52.44 percent of the 352,482 people who have voted early or by mail so far have been Democrats, 32.44 percent have been Republicans and a little more than 12 percent have been unaffiliated, according to numbers provided by the Secretary of State's Office Friday morning. Both Democrats and Republicans appear to be voting early in greater numbers than their representation in the electorate — Democrats make up about 45 percent of New Mexico voters while Republicans are about 31 percent, according to statistics compiled Oct. 31 — while unaffiliated voters, who make up 22.5 percent of the electorate, are lagging.

Democrats have a strong advantage in Santa Fe County — out of the county's more than 110,000 voters, 69,745 are Democrats, 16,829 are Republicans and fewer than 1,000 are Libertarians, according to state statistics. Just over 22,000 declined to affiliate with a party.

Election officials began processing nearly 10,000 returned absentee ballots on Friday.

"By statute, if a county sends out more than 10,000, an election board can start tabulating absentees two weeks before Election Day," Clark said.

Bernadette Vadurro, Santa Fe Democratic Party chairwoman, said more than 13,000 absentee ballots have been mailed to eligible voters.

"As of a few minutes ago, the Absentee Board has processed 9,386 absentee ballots," she said on Friday morning.

Processing means checking the outer part of the envelope, separating the ballots in preparation for counting and accepting or rejecting each ballot, said Geraldine Salazar, who works as a Democratic poll observer.

Clark said a multipartisan absentee board determines whether the ballot will be qualified by the presence of a voter signature. The ballots are then opened and tabulated.

Absentee ballots will continue to be processed until the polls close on Election Day. Voters can check to see if their ballot was accepted or rejected by visiting NMVote.org, Clark said.

Santa Fe County offers same-day registration, Clark said. Voters are allowed to vote at the polling site of their choice and can check wait times at each polling location to avoid sites with longer lines at santafe.vote.

Political parties are allowed to have one appointed challenger each per polling place.

"They cannot see personally identifying information from the absentee ballot," Clark said. "Because we use a chain of custody and scan ballots during the receipt, ... transport, and [the] acceptance/rejection process, there is a narrow opportunity for challenge."

Challengers are unlike observers, who take notes and report back to party headquarters, said Debra Archuleta, integrity coordinator and secretary for the Santa Fe County Republicans. Poll watchers can also make challenges, she said. For example, if someone arrives at a polling location with an inordinate number of absentee ballots, those ballots can be challenged, she said.

"Poll watchers are not something that a lot of people really know about," said Daniel Garcia, spokesman for the Democratic Party of New Mexico. "We have a strong structure in place to ensure quick resolutions. We hope the Republican Party ensures that poll challengers also believe in election security and have a similar goal of making sure every eligible vote counts."

There are 49 Republican challengers in Santa Fe County, Archuleta said. Santa Fe's Democratic Party has 28 challengers, Garcia said.

Archuleta, who is responsible for training and scheduling challengers, says most people volunteering for the position are a bit nervous because they're new and unsure of how they will be treated.

"It's actually been going pretty steady," she said. "We have some [presiding judges] that can be a little rough, but we have to be able to walk around and see things to make sure everything is being done per election statutes."

Challengers step in when ballots have become "spoiled," such as when a voter marks an X on the ballot instead of filling in the circle or when a voter writes on a ballot.

"The tabulator won't read the ballot, and it will be rejected," Archuleta said.

Clark said her office is typically not open on Saturdays but will open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. so people can vote over the weekend.

"The deadline has passed for requesting an absentee ballot, but if you have a ballot in hand, drop it, don't mail it," she said.