59 percent of early voters say ‘No’ to spaceport tax

The majority of early voters in Doña Ana County voted against a 1/4 percent increase in the gross receipts tax to help fund Spaceport America.

Of 3,819 early voters, 2,246, or 59 percent, voted against imposing the tax, and 1,573, or 41 percent, voted for imposing it.

That total does not include as many as 571 absentee ballots that have yet to be counted. Spaceport backers say they focused on absentee ballots and predicted that most of them will go their way.

Still, this is a big deficit for the tax to overcome.

The polls are now closed.