More than 660,000 New Mexicans cast ballots for candidates from local races for the nation’s highest office during the state’s first voting period that began in October. 8 and running through Saturday, the secretary of state’s office said Monday.

About 530,000 of those ballots – or 80% – were cast in person. The rest, or about 120,000 voters, were mailed, according to state data. According to the latest voter rolls, the early voting period total represents about 48% of New Mexico’s registered voters.

That doesn’t quite beat the record early turnout for the 2020 election of nearly 800,000 voters. Another change from the pandemic election was the percentage of mail-in ballots, which accounted for 35% of votes cast in 2020, but less than a quarter of votes cast in this election so far.

In seven counties, more than half of registered voters voted absentee or early, including Bernalillo, the state’s most populous, with more than 243,000 early votes. More than 50% of registered voters also showed up early in Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Sandoval, Santa Fe and Valencia counties.

Republican candidates have challenged, without evidence, the validity of mail-in ballots or early voting in other states. It is unclear whether that has had an impact on Republican voters, but at the beginning of 2024, just over 75,000 fewer Republicans voted compared to 2020.

Democratic voters accounted for 46% of early turnout, compared to Republicans’ 36%.

Statewide, the Democratic Party takes the largest share of the electorate at 42%, while Republicans represent about a third of registered voters. A quarter of voters refuse to declare party affiliation, and the Libertarians make up just over 1%, while all other parties together make up just under 1%.

Tuesday is the last day to vote for positions such as president, U.S. Senate, Congress and the legislature.