The jury is still out but so are the results in the "historic" late term abortion ban in Albuquerque are looking good so far. The day-of-voting count hasn't been posted but the early and absentee voting is in and the "NO!" about 12 points up on the vote to ban late term abortions.
http://www.abqjournal.com/...
About 56 percent of the ballots counted so far are against the ban, and 44 percent are in favor. None of the Election Day votes have been tallied yet.
A number of friends of ours have said that early voting lines were "out the door." Alas, we live in the County, outside the city limits, so we couldn't vote. Glad to see our townie friends are doing well.
Still, the pro-life protesters were certainly making their presence known.
Aggressive anti-abortion protesters with “dead-baby posters” triggered complaints at the Albuquerque Museum, but voting is otherwise smooth in today’s historic election, [City Clerk Amy] Bailey says.
In a 2 p.m. interview, Bailey said the protesters dispersed after city security intervened at the museum, which is a polling site in today’s election.
The protesters carried signs that scared children on a field trip, she said. They were also close enough to the polling site to raise concerns about whether they were impeding people’s ability to get into the museum, Bailey said.
Out of state groups such as Operation Rescue have poured a ton of money into this campaign. Let's hope it's all been flushed down the loo.
According to local TV KOAT, "More than 76,000 people had voted as of 6 p.m. Tuesday," though it's not clear from that report of those 76K people is a total or those who voted today.
KRQE notes an "hour wait" at some poling stations at 6pm MST. Cool!
Either way, the news outlets - and the city - are calling the vote "historic."
9:00pm, KRQE
8:52 pm: @AGoodman_krqe: With a couple voting centers reporting.. numbers are unchanged in late-term abortion vote.
8:11 pm: RT @AlexG_Reporter: Voter turnout for this special election appears to have surpassed the 2009 citywide election.
8:04 pm: All voting locations are closed in #abq2013 election. 36,734 people voted today and 87,296 overall. There were more registered voters today than there was a month ago. Turnout was 24% compared to 20% for the Mayorial race. Bandelier Elementary voting location was the last to close.
KOB TV sez, 9:15pm: 55% against / 44% for.
9:45pm: 54% against to 45% for.
9:45 tally: Percentages are the same