Mary Herrera, the Bernalillo County Clerk (New Mexico's largest county) is offering some advice for candidates in this year's election. Don't have your victory parties until the day after the Nov. 2 election.
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See article here.
That's because the tally of absentee ballots-- expected to be about one-third of all votes-- probably won't be available until the morning after the election.
"I've been telling (candidates), 'Seriously, don't be sitting there having your victory party on Tuesday night,' '' Herrera said in an interview. " 'It's best if you plan it Wednesday night or afternoon.' ''
Her staff is expecting about 75,000 people to vote absentee this year-- far more than the 52,000 tallied in 2002.
The crush of paper ballots could leave the nation waiting on Bernalillo County to determine the expected close presidential race. New Mexico has five electoral votes, and Bernalillo County is the state's most populous county.
"If we should have an unbelievably close race at the national level, then it would not be inconceivable that the nation would be waiting on Bernalillo County absentee votes," said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc.
The Secretary of State and the county clerk are discussing the possibility of seeking court approval of rules that would speed up the counting process, although the disagree over which one of them should seek the order. In New Mexico, the county clerks cannot begin opening the absentee ballots until the morning of election day. They are seeking to be able to at least open the outer of the two envelopes prior to that in order to speed things up.
There is an accompanying article (Ballots Cast Before Nov. 2 Are key) talking about the drive to get people to vote early or absentee this year.
I seriously doubt that Bernalillo County will be the only one with this problem.