No cyberattacks aimed at New Mexico’s web sites amid reports of attacks in other states
7:15pm: As threats of cyberattacks aimed at disrupting the election process have come to fruition in a couple of states, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office said it has not experienced any attacks on its website.
Department spokesman Alex Curtas said it has not been informed of any attempts to disrupt potential voters’ ability to access information regarding the voting process. He added he does not expect any slowdowns this evening as results came in just after the 7 pm voting deadline.
“The systems have been up and running all day,” Curtas said. “We had a little slowness here and there, but other than that, it’s been all good.”
NBC reported on its election blog that several of Mississippi’s state websites were intermittently inaccessible as a Russian hacker group targeted the state in an attempt to disrupt the election process. It stated the attacks were aimed at sites that help residents find out where and how to vote.
Several media outlets reported that Champaign County in Illinois was fighting off a cyberattack on its website, but none of the attacks were aimed at affecting or changing votes.
Polls closing in New Mexico
7:02pm: Polls are closing across New Mexico, although election results won’t be available for a little while longer. Check here for updates. There will also be a results page at santafenewmexican.com with the results in the various races, as well as a by-county map of the results in the gubernatorial race displaying the percentages and numbers in each county in real time as they report.
Heinrich predicts 2022 will be historic election
6:59pm: US Sen. Martin Heinrich, DN.M., said in an interview shortly before the polls closed that this is an election that will shape New Mexico for decades to come.
“I think, when we look back at the 2022 election, with all of the big races — for governor and statewide races, congressional races — in 20 years, I predict when we look back at this election, this is the election that everyone’s going to look at and say this made a difference in the trajectory of a generation and a state,” he said.
Santa Fe archbishop excited for Constitutional Amendment 1
6:47pm: Speaking to our reporter at an election night party in Albuquerque for supporters of Constitutional Amendment 1, Archbishop John Wester, leader of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, said there are many tangential benefits to increasing funding for early childhood education.
These include the support parents can receive through home visitations, he said. He added many University of New Mexico professors have written papers and given talks on how the amendment will help kids in New Mexico.
“All the evidence is clear that when you do what this initiative is going to do with this constitutional amendment, it’s going to be crucial, no doubt,” Wester said. “I’m excited for the kids mainly. I mean, this is going to really be for them, an absolute winner.”
Ballroom starting to fill up for Ronchetti party
6:37pm: People are slowly filing into the ballroom at the Hotel Albuquerque for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti’s election night party, according to our reporter at the scene. So far, about 150 people have arrived. The mood, he says, seems upbeat, with lots of smiles.
The musical lineup has included I Love Rock n’ Roll” by Joan Jett, “Revolution” by the Beatles, “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel and “I’m Proud to be an American” by Lee Greenwood. Appetizers include vegetarian spring rolls , ham skewers and deviled eggs, and the ages of attendees range from kids and young adults to the obviously elderly.
Dems led early voting but GOP leading E-day vote
6:31pm: Republicans have continued to slightly outpace outpace Democrats in Election Day voting, according to the final update the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office is putting out before the polls close.
As of 6 pm, 634,044 New Mexicans had cast midterm ballots, according to the Secretary of State’s office. When the Election Day, absentee and early votes are all added up, 48.5 percent of the ballots cast have come from Democrats, 36.8 percent from Republicans and 13.5 percent from unaffiliated voters, who are showing up to the polls in numbers lagging the number of them in the electorate.
Republicans have continued to lead the Election Day vote, with 79,020 of them casting ballots today. There have been 77,453 Democrats and 28,759 declined to state/independent voters who have voted at the polls today as of 6 pm
There were 701,654 votes cast in New Mexico in the 2018 midterms. Absentee voting was much lower then — there were 92,109 absentee votes this year compared to 68,376 then — while in-person early voting was a bit lower this year, at 353,479 votes compared to 374,145 in 2018. Election Day turnout in 2018 was 259,133; so far this year it’s at 188,456, but there’s still time left.
Ronchetti supports hopeful as evening starts
6:06pm: As supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti lined up outside one of the ballrooms of the Hotel Albuquerque for his arrival later tonight, Ronchetti supporter Earl Jeter, a US Air Force veteran, said he supports the GOP candidate because “we need somebody in there who is not a politician … someone who will do things from the heart instead of for the Democrat or Republican party.”
Nancy Campanozzi, who has lived in Albuquerque since the late 1980s, said she has her “fingers crossed” that Ronchetti will win. She met him at a neighbor’s house during his campaign and said she asked him what his number one priority would be if elected. She said she trusts Ronchetti and went to work as a volunteer for his campaign, holding up signs of support.
“He said he would address the crime issues in the city and county,” she said. “It’s getting out of control, and it’s scary.”
Voting seems to be going smoothly in Santa Fe so far
5:35pm: Will Webber has been out and about in Santa Fe today talking to voters, including a woman who cast her first vote as a US citizen today and Republican 3rd District congressional candidate Alexis Martinez Johnson. You can read his account here.
So far the day seems to be going smoothly in New Mexico. Before today, election workers said things had gone well in early voting but they were still “a little on alert because of all the poll worker threats,” as Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark put it. You can read Marianne Todd’s account of that here.
Voting underway in New Mexico; polls close at 7 pm
4:20pm: Good afternoon, and welcome to The Santa Fe New Mexican election live blog. We will be posting here as election news comes in — numbers as they come in; selection results and analysis; interviews with and press releases from the candidates; anecdotes from the polls or from election watch parties; and whatever else we come up with. Keep checking here, especially after the polls close at 7 pm, to keep up to date with the latest.
As of 3 pm, 607,272 ballots had been cast in New Mexico — 162,074 on Election Day itself, the rest early or absentee ballots that had been cast before. Out of all the votes that have been cast so far, 48.9 percent have come from Democrats, 36.4 percent from Republicans and 13.5 percent from voters who declined to affiliate with a party. While Democrats held the edge in early and absentee voting — 229,748 Democrats and only 152,956 Republicans voted before Election Day — so far Republicans hold a slight edge in Election Day ballots. As of 3 pm 67,043 Republicans and 66,948 Democrats had voted on Election Day.
Comments are closed.