Voters engaged; absentee push slackens

KRQE TV

Updated: Oct 18, 2012 7:03 PM

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) — Election officials are spotting some big changes in voting trends in Bernalillo County as Election Day approaches.

For one there are a lot more voters than during the 2008 presidential election, according to Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse-Oliver.

She says there are 37,000 more registered voters in Bernalillo County, an 8 percent increase over four years ago.

Toulouse-Oliver thinks that's because a lot of people are interested in the presidential race.

But the fact that the presidential candidates aren't as interested in New Mexico is creating a different sort of ripple. There are considerably fewer absentee votes in comparison to the election in 2008.

New Mexico is not considered a swing state this round, and as a result the presidential campaigns aren't investing as heavily in the absentee voting push as they have in the past.

Toulouse-Oliver says another reason people aren't voting absentee by mail as heavily is because they are more comfortable with early voting in person.

At the only early voting location now open--the Clerk's Annex at 620 Lomas Blvd. NW--400 people a day are coming in to vote.

This Saturday early voting will really kick in when 16 more early voting sites open up around Bernalillo County. Those sites will be open through Nov. 3, the Saturday before Election Day.

Hours will be Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
 

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