SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A trickle of primary voters filed through a makeshift polling site inside a cavernous parking garage Tuesday, as New Mexico election officials took impromptu precautions against the transmission of COVID-19 on the first day of early voting.
Masks, gloves and bottles of disinfectant were on hand as voting began at county clerks’ offices in a primary that concludes on June 2. At the same time, election officials are promoting mail-in voting by absentee ballot as the safest option.
As of Monday, more than 91,000 requests were made for absentee ballots, according to the Secretary of State’s office. About 14,000 absentee ballot were cast in the 2016 presidential primary.
State health officials say New Mexico has yet to reach a definitive peak in daily infections for COVID-19, amid surging cases in the northwest area of the state. The state Supreme Court last month rejected a proposal to suspend most in-person voting.
Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar said she decided to conduct early in-person voting in a parking garage, where fresh air flowed through open windows and doorways, to encourage greater social distancing and avoid possible contamination of Santa Fe County government offices.
Poll workers wiped down voting booths that are used to fill out paper ballots. A registration table was shielded by a Plexiglass sneeze guard. At the electronic signature pad, disposable sticks substituted for a stylus to avoid repeated touching. Green swaths of tape on the ground market out appropriate distancing in the voting queue - though only one voter appeared over the course of 30 minutes.
“This is all new,” said Salazar, a second-term Democrat in her final year under term limits. “There are many unknowns.”
She said voters were encouraged to wear a face mask and gloves, but won’t be turned away.
Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce applauded the opening of early voting sites, after the party prevailed in court to preserve in-person balloting and absentee balloting by request only.
“They can go right out to the clerks’ offices,” he said. “There is in-person as well as absentee voting.”
Election officials have shipped about 985,000 applications for absentee ballots directly to registered voters. An absentee ballot can be requested for any reason by mail or online through May 28, and must turned in by 7 p.m. on June 2.
The coronavirus pandemic appears to be accelerating a cultural shift nationwide toward alternatives to in-person Election Day voting, said Page Gardner of the nonpartisan Voter Participation Center.
Her group distributed more than 230,000 voter registration applications in New Mexico, targeting residents who don’t vote even though they are eligible.
Republican primary voters are deciding between two contenders who hope to retake a congressional swing district seat held by U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in southern New Mexico.
The state’s Democratic primary is likely to decide who succeeds U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján in the Democrat-dominated 3rd Congressional District in northern New Mexico. Luján is the presumed Democratic nominee to succeed retiring Sen. Tom Udall.
The entire Legislature is up for elections this year, with an upswing in primary-election challenges.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has ordered special safety precautions for the primary vote that limit the number of voters in a polling place to 20% of occupancy limits or four voters.
In-person voting will be offered more broadly at early voting centers starting May 16 and on Election Day at traditional precinct polls. Some counties may operate fewer polling places as demand for absentee balloting surges.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.