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As the midnight hour approached Tuesday night, Election Day closed in Doña Ana County with some contests too close to call and absentee votes waiting to be counted.
In accordance with New Mexico election law, the election workers charged with counting absentee ballots adjourned at 11 p.m. Tuesday to reconvene at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and continue counting.
As of 5:30 p.m. on Election Day, 9,581 Doña Ana County residents had voted by submitting an absentee ballot, while 11,442 had requested one, per data from the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office.
In federal elections, New Mexico’s senior U.S. Senator, Martin Heinrich, was projected by the Associated Press to win his bid for a third six-year term. The Democrat fended off a challenge by Republican Nella Domenici, the daughter of the late former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici. Early and incomplete election night results showed Heinrich leading by 10 percentage points.
In the closely-watched southern New Mexico congressional contest, where Las Cruces Democrat Gabe Vasquez is seeking to be the first Democrat re-elected in the district since 1978, Associated Press projected him the winner close to midnight. With 254,000 votes counted, Vasquez led Republican Yvette Herrell, whom he ousted from the House seat in 2022, by less than 8,000 votes.
At the top of the ballot, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris was projected to win New Mexico’s five electoral college votes, outpacing Republican Donald Trump by 47,521 votes, six percentage points ahead of the former president.
Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin was on track to win her second full term by a decisive margin, with a 56 percent showing in early, incomplete results over Republican challenger Cheryl De Young.
Mesilla Democrat Fernando Macías, a former district judge, state senator and county manager running for Doña Ana County District Attorney, was leading Republican rival Michael Cain, a Las Cruces trial attorney, by 12 percentage points in the early results.
Incumbents in two of three contested seats on the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners appeared to be leading as far as the votes reported Tuesday night.
District 4 Commissioner Susana Chaparro, a Democrat, led Republican Stacie Durham by about 1,000 votes or four percentage points. District 5 Commissioner Manuel Sanchez had 11,350 votes for re-election, but no votes had yet been reported for his write-in challenger, Republican Marcy Teague. In District 2, Democrat Gloria Gameros was leading Republican Lorraine Limon McCullough by more than 2,000 votes, after defeating Commissioner Diana Murillo in June’s Democratic primary election.
Meanwhile, Doña Ana County’s statehouse elections were among the closest in the state – except, of course, for several uncontested races where incumbents will walk into new terms.
Just 66 votes separated state Sen. Carrie Hamblen, D-Las Cruces, from Republican challenger Samantha Barncastle Salopek as of 12:15 a.m. Wednesday.
In House District 53, a district straddling Doña Ana and Otero counties, first-time candidate Sarah Silva, a Democrat, was trailing Republican Elizabeth Winterrowd by just 31 votes.
In other districts, Democrats fared well. State Rep. Nathan Small, D-Las Cruces, led Republican challenger Kim Skaggs by 419 votes; Chamberino Democrat Raymundo Lara was ahead of Republican challenger Larry Sedillo by over 1,000 for the District 34 state House seat; and state Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, was leading Republican challenger David Tofsted by 2,000 votes.
In Las Cruces, voters approved a gross receipts tax increase, raising the tax on local goods and services by 0.3250 percent. Voting in favor were 23,845 voters over 19,264 who voted against it.
More results, and perhaps more certainty about some of the closer contests, were expected to come in on Wednesday as the process of counting ballots and reporting to Santa Fe resumes.
