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With Early Voting Underway, N.M. Election Officials Urge Primary Voters To Use Absentee Ballots

Maggie Toulouse Oliver shows her homemade mask during a press conference on May 15, 2020.

 

Early voting in New Mexico’s primary election has begun, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, election officials are urging anyone who can vote to stay away from the polls and use absentee ballots. Registered voters can request an absentee ballot at NMvote.org through May 28, and in order to be counted it has to reach the county clerk’s office by 7pm on June 2.

 

In a press conference last week, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said people who need language interpretation, accommodations for a disability, or who don’t receive their absentee ballot in time will still need to visit a polling location. She said masks will be provided at polling places, and people won’t be allowed to enter the building without one. 

 

 

“This isn’t to keep you safe, so much as to keep everyone else in that polling location safe,” Oliver said. “Particularly our poll workers, the folks who will be there all day long, interacting with every single voter who comes in and out of that polling place.”

 

New Mexico’s primary election is open to voters registered as a Republican, Democrat or Libertarian. Voters will select their party’s candidate for president, as well as congressional, state and county-level races.

 

The League of Women Voters is providing an online voter's guide at Vote411.org.

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