Mike Smith
El Rito Media
msmith@currentargus.com

The Eddy County Board of County Commissioners certified the results of the Nov. 5 election at a special meeting Nov. 14 in Carlsbad.

Commissioners met as the official canvassing board for the election and validated the 23,450 ballots cast across Eddy County.

The county had only two contested races, for sheriff and state House District 54, but still drew 64% of the county’s eligible voters to the polls, according to County Clerk Cara Cooke.

“It’s a great turnout,” said County Commission Chairman James “Bo” Bowen.

“I think that’s the highest turnout I’ve seen in the 17 years I’ve been at the county clerk’s office,” said Cooke. “The numbers kind of align with the General (Election) of 2020.” She said about 23,000 voters participated in 2020.

Cooke said she believes the presidential race between Republican Donald J. Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris contributed to the large turnout.

Personnel from the county clerk’s office began preparing for the canvassing process on Nov. 6, Cooke said.

“We start after the election and we’ll go through all the voting convenience centers’ documentation and make sure the number of ballots issued and the number of ballots put into the tabulators match up and align,” she said. “All 13 voting convenience centers did match up during this election. We’ll go through the absentee board’s records and early voting records,” she said.

Cooke said any write-in votes or ballots that are counted by hand by her office are entered manually entered into the New Mexico Secretary of State’s system in order to get complete voter totals.

Once the tabulation is complete, she said, results are officially validated by commissioners in their capacity as canvassing board.

Mike Smith can be reached at 575-308-8734 or email at msmith@currentargus.com.