Bernalillo County sees strong early voting ahead of June 2 primary

Bernalillo County closed early voting with strong participation on the final day before the June 2 primary, and the numbers are being watched closely in Sandoval County as well. The turnout surge comes in New Mexico’s first semi-open primary, a change that lets independent and unaffiliated voters choose either a Democratic or Republican ballot without changing registration.

That shift could matter in a county like Bernalillo, where Clerk Michelle S. Kavanaugh says there are about 442,000 registered voters and roughly a quarter of them are independent. Kavanaugh has said primary turnout has typically fallen in the 22% to 24% range in the last couple of primaries, leaving plenty of room for the new rules to move the needle. “Primary turnout has tended to be 22-24% in the last couple primaries, which is pretty low,” Kavanaugh said.

Early voting in Bernalillo County began May 5 at the clerk’s annex in Albuquerque and expanded May 16 to 21 voting convenience centers across the county. Most locations were open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Friday, May 30, with same-day registration available during early voting and on Election Day. The deadline to request an absentee ballot was May 19.

Statewide, the early vote was already running ahead of the 2024 primary. By May 26, nearly 95,000 New Mexicans had voted early, or about 6.6% of the electorate, and that total had already surpassed the full early-vote count from the 2024 primary. In Bernalillo County, the last presidential primary saw 48,209 Democratic votes and 24,268 Republican votes, while statewide turnout in the 2024 primary reached 22.83%.

For Sandoval County, the stakes are less about one headline race than about whether this is a genuine expansion of primary participation or a temporary lift tied to the rule change. Sandoval County opened 11 community voting locations for the same May 16 to May 30 early-voting window, putting the county squarely inside the metro-wide turnout test now unfolding across central New Mexico.

The final answer will come on Tuesday, June 2, when the primary closes and election officials can see whether the early interest held up, or whether the new semi-open ballot mainly produced a short-lived spike.