Whether you are casting your vote for federal or local elections, your county government is in charge of making sure your vote gets counted. With well over 200,000 residents spread across 3,800 square miles, collecting the votes can be a logistical challenge.
Doña Ana County Chief Deputy Clerk Caroline Zamora is in charge of overseeing the election process this year since County Clerk Amanda López-Askin is running for reelection. She says that it is a team effort.
“We have an amazing team so they are the ones doing the day to day, they are the ones in it and the election officials are at each site and they are the ones talking to the public at each site. So as far as elections go I am here to support the staff,” Zamora said.
One of these staff members is Sarah Archer who is working at the polls for the first time.
“I was interested in learning about how the election process goes so that’s why I decided to work here,” Archer said.
Archer is responsible for checking voters in and handing them their ballot. With this year having higher turnout thanks to it being a presidential election year, this can get busy with 8 days until election day.
Nellie Rosales has been working with elections for ten years. She says that seeing friends and voters come in is why she works there.
“I thought that it would be a good opportunity to see how it is done and I enjoy it because I see my coworkers from the past,” Rosales said.
Even though all of these ballots are being cast before election day, Chief Deputy Clerk
Caroline Zamora says that they cannot start counting the ballots at the warehouse until 7:00 p.m. on election night.
“Our absentee board, who opens the envelopes for the absentee ballots, we will send them home at 11:00 so it is very likely we will not be done with those on election night,” Zamora said.
If all of the ballots do not get counted that night, the workers will return to count the rest the following morning, according to Zamora.
“I am just like everyone else. I am clicking refresh all night long, I am looking at the same page the public looks at and I would love to have results that night but it is unlikely,” Zamora said.
Once the ballots are counted, the county has to keep the ballots for 22 months per federal law.
