Hundreds of people showed up at five early voting sites throughout
Early voting ends at 6 p.m. today, and the total number of votes cast early is expected to top 9,000 – about 10 percent of the county’s registered voters.
At the Doña Ana County Government Center in Las Cruces – the primary early voting site – there were more than 50 people in line at 10:30 a.m., a half hour after the polling place opened. More than 800 people voted at that site on Friday.
I then went to Anthony, the site where poll workers accused activists of coaching voters and activists accused poll workers of intimidating voters last weekend, leading to the police being called out. The group of activists, who have taken people to the polls in a limousine since the 2004 election, showed up around noon.
The people they brought voted without problems. The only minor incident occurred when the limousine driver questioned why he was being asked to stand near his vehicle and away from the polling site. He raised his voice momentarily, but an elections official explained the reasoning to him.
State law requires that no one except voters, members of the precinct board and other election officials, lawfully appointed challengers and watchers and those who are authorized to give assistance be closer than 50 feet from the polling place.
I received the same treatment as the limousine driver.
The group brought more voters back later in the day, and the situation again remained calm.
A Democrat who voted at the Anthony site Saturday told me he has been voting at that location since the 1980s and has never had any problems. Many of the same poll workers have been working that site for years.
County Clerk Rita Torres even showed up in Anthony to keep an eye on the situation.
“I just want to make sure everything goes as it should,” she told me.
I ended my trip at Highland Elementary in
Here are some photos from my travels.
