Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said Monday she expects polls on Election Day to be relatively quiet.
She estimated about 320 people will vote at each precinct. There are 162 polling locations in Bernalillo County.
"It may not take as long to vote as you think it will," she said. " I think it will be OK."
The busiest times will be early morning, lunchtime and early evening, she said.
Early voters - 81,785 of them - turned out in record numbers. Their ballots and absentee ballots will make counting slower on Election Day, Herrera said.
Approximately 69,224 absentee ballots were mailed out, 55,571 of which have been returned.
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Herrera said the county clerk's office received good feedback on the timeliness of touch-screen voting booths.
"The lines seemed long, but they actually went through very fast," she said.
Herrera has always used troubleshooters to control lines and irate people during general elections, but never at early voting sites.
"I didn't announce it, because I didn't want voters to be intimidated," she said. "Because of the high turnout, it was a good thing I hired them."
There will be 35 troubleshooters, including retired police officers, firemen and county officers, at polling locations. Security will be present only at tallying locations.
Herrera said the most important thing people need to find out before heading out to vote is which precinct they are registered in.
If voters are not on the roster, they will be issued a provisional ballot.
"No one should be turned away," Herrera said.
A provisional ballot is a paper ballot that is filled out by hand and taken to the county clerk's office. The ballot is only valid if a voter goes to a polling location outside his or her precinct and not if the voter is registered in other New Mexico counties. So far, Herrera's office received around 4,000 provisional ballots.
"If you know where you are headed to, that will alleviate a lot of frustration," she said.
Up to 12 challengers will also be at every polling site.
Herrera said challengers can make sure people are who they say they are, but that's about it.
"If any challengers are intimidating voters, they have the right to call the police and have them removed," she said.
Students who registered to vote using their campus address may be worried they will be turned away from the polling site.
Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, associate dean for clinical affairs at the UNM School of Law, said if a student registered to vote in person or at a voter registration drive, they won't need an ID at the polls.
"But if they registered by mail, then they will need an ID," she said. "A lot of UNM students don't have their campus address on their IDs," she said.
First-time voters who registered by mail who have not yet shown ID need to bring an ID to the polls.
"The situation was brought to my attention when I got a call that a student had a problem voting," she said.
To remedy this, Sedillo Lopez said the secretary of state's office announced it would accept a notarized letter from the registrar's office that states the voter is a UNM student who lives in the dorms.
Students registered in the dorms can vote on campus in the Student Residence Center commons behind La Posada.
For any students not registered on campus and without vehicles, the City of Albuquerque announced the bus system would take people to the polls for free, as long as it is on their scheduled routes.
Attorneys and observers will be at polls for anyone who might encounter a problem voting.
If you have never been registered to vote in Bernalillo County and you registered by mail, you need to bring an ID to your polling location if you haven't already brought it to the county clerk's office. An ID can be anything with the address on your registration card such as a driver license, utility bill, paycheck stub, etc.
If your registered address is your dorm address and you don't have an ID with that address on it, you can go by the Registrar's Office and get a notarized letter stating you are a UNM student who lives on campus.
If you have problems, attorneys, observers and challengers will be at each site to help you. You have the right to look at the official roster at the site to see if your name is on it.
To find out where your precinct is, you can check the Bernalillo county clerk's Web site at www.bernco.gov/live/ and click on "Where do I vote?"
City buses will run for free on Election Day to transport people to the polls.
* 151,009 people registered absentee or voted at early voting sites
* 69,224 absentee ballots were sent out in Bernalillo County
* 55,571 absentee ballots were returned
* 81,785 voted early in Bernalillo County
* 13,383 people were flagged at early voting sites to show ID
