Early voting may require a long drive

The map of New Mexico is a vivid reminder of what starkly different worlds we New Mexicans live in – one tight clump in the center of the state and enormous open spaces dotted with small towns.

The map, in this case, was provided by the Secretary of State’s office, showing the polling sites for early voting and Election Day voting for the recent primary.  It is online at polling.sks.com. Save this link for the general election.

We can’t tell from the data how much early voting influenced our recent primary election.  What we can tell is how much the early voting option was utilized.

The numbers indicate that early voting was much more heavily used in Bernalillo County and other metro areas than in our sparsely populated rural counties.

The early voting period this year was May 21 to June 4.  By law, each county was required to make early voting available at the county clerk’s office.  Counties could also set up additional early voting sites.

Several rural counties used only the clerk’s office.  Others had an additional location at a fire station or other public building. Most tribes had a site location at a tribal community center, but not all.  Voters from little Picuris Pueblo would have to go to the Peñasco community center.

McKinley County had three sites; San Juan had five. Most eastern counties had only one site each.  Lea County had five; Chaves (which includes Roswell) had three; Eddy had two.  So for many New Mexico voters, early voting involved a long drive.

For this analysis, I’m not looking at who won but at the pattern of who voted and when.   (I did not analyze absentee voting, which shows far lower numbers.)

The total number of Democratic voters who voted in the presidential primary was 216,075.  Of those, 78,817 voted early; 13,734 absentee; and 123,524 voted on Election Day.

That total is more than twice the number of voters in the Republican presidential primary – not surprising, since that race was decided in early May, before our early voting started.  A total of 104,627 votes were cast: 36,091 voted early; 8732 absentee; and 59,804 on Election Day.

The urban-rural difference was easiest to see by looking at the three Congressional districts.   In compact urban District 1, Democratic incumbent Michelle Lujan Grisham received almost the same number of votes from early voters as on Election Day – 31,371 early; 32,380 Election Day.  Ben Ray Lujan, whose District 3 is more-or-less the northern half of the state, had almost twice as many votes on Election Day as early;  25,139 early; 48,000 Election Day.  Republican Steve Pearce in District 2 had more than twice as many votes on Election Day:  10,860 early; 23,417 Election Day.

Legislature races let us see the voting patterns at a more local level.  In most cases, the general rule held that in urban districts, the early voting and Election Day numbers were almost equal, and in rural districts, about twice as many voters turned up on Election Day as in the three prior weeks.

There were wide variations in that pattern, but it’s clear that distance matters and Election Day – with many more polling locations available – is still the popular choice for a majority of New Mexico voters.  (The complete results are on the website at sos.state.nm.us.)

More than half of the state House races and almost half of the Senate races will be uncontested in November.  It remains to be seen whether this year’s weird presidential race will draw record numbers of voters or discourage many from turning out.  However, it’s clear that voting on Election Day is still a community activity, a chance for neighbors to say hello and visit even if they grumble about standing on line.

Triple Spaced Again, © New Mexico News Services 2016

 

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