Photo by alphabunny_photos/flickr.com
Anthony is becoming an official city after residents there voted overwhelmingly today in favor of incorporation.
With results from both polling places and early and absentee ballots counted, 410 people, or 73 percent, voted in favor of incorporation, while 151 people, or 27 percent, voted against it, according to Doña Ana County Chief Deputy Clerk Mario Jimenez.
Turnout was 561, or 22 percent, of the 2,615 people eligible to vote in the election, Jimenez said. The results are still unofficial, but will be canvassed Friday and presented to the county commission a week from today for approval.
Anthony is a community of almost 8,000 residents, and 38 percent of them live below the poverty level. The proposed new city would encompass a little more than 2.5 square miles.
The last incorporation vote in the county was in 2005 in Chaparral, and it failed.