Quay just shy of record turnout

Despite record numbers of early voting, Quay County fell just shy of record overall turnout during this year's general election.

A total of exactly 3,900 people cast their ballots in the county. With 6,093 registered voters, that is a turnout of 64% - short of the record of 65% reported during the 2008 general election, according to data kept by County Clerk Ellen White.

New Mexico broke a record when more than 920,000 people voted in the general election for a 68% turnout, according to unofficial results Thursday from the Secretary of State's Office. All precincts in the state had reported results by Wednesday.

White said about 750 inactive voters in the county will be removed from the rolls in the next two years. Estimating the number of active voters at 5,331, that would boost county turnout to 73%.

"If you look at our active registered voters, it would be much higher, which I prefer to use," she said.

A total of 2,135 people voted early, which was 415 more than the previous early voting record of 1,720 during the 2016 general election.

A total of 745 voters cast absentee ballots, which was well short of the record of more than 1,100 cast during this year's primary election amid the COVID-19 pandemic but still a hefty number. That still was a record for a general election in Quay County.

But just 720 people actually cast their ballots on Election Day, well short of the 1,647 during the 2016 general election and the record 1,971 on Election Day in 2008.

White, observing a drop-off in early voting the last two weeks before Election Day after heavy numbers the previous two weeks, correctly surmised turnout would be lower on Tuesday.

James Kleinsasser, presiding election judge at the Tucumcari Convention Center precinct, said 10 people were waiting in line to enter when polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday. Lines after that never got more than six or seven people deep, he said.

Short waits for Quay County voters belied the experiences at many other precincts across the country, where some voters waited several hours to cast a ballot.

Voting generally went smoothly, White said.

"I'm really happy we didn't have any issues with voters at the polling places," she said. "We didn't have any problems with campaigning and electioneering. We were warned about stuff that could happen, and I'm really happy our Quay County voters were civil, voted and went home."

One glitch occurred Tuesday morning at the San Jon precinct, when a computer crash stopped voting for about 40 minutes.

"It was fixed within an hour after we were made aware of it," White said. "No voters were turned away. There was a handful who didn't get to vote while they were standing there, but they left and were called back as soon as the system was back up. They came right back and voted."

The counting of most ballots in Quay County was completed before 8 p.m. An elections board completed a hand count of 31 damaged or problematic absentee ballots and military ballots by 10 p.m. Tuesday.

White said her office staff saw no outstanding ballots, no provisional ballots and no absentee ballots with incomplete information.

The Quay County Republican Party had a watcher, Bob Howles, monitoring the polls Tuesday morning at the Tucumcari precinct.

But he acknowledged he didn't expect any irregularities or problems.

"They run a pretty tight ship here," he said.