By the time polls open this morning, four in 10 New Mexicans registered to vote will already have cast a ballot. That means the day once known as Election Day likely will produce thinner lines than in the past for all of you procrastinators.

Nearly half a million New Mexicans — or 498,914 — cast ballots statewide through early or absentee voting, the Secretary of State’s office announced late Monday afternoon. To put that number in perspective, that’s nearly two-thirds of the total number of New Mexicans who cast ballots for president in the 2004 race, according to Secretary of State statistics.

Bernalillo County led the charge, as half of all registered voters in the state’s largest county — 198,259 of 393,922– voted early, according to state and county figures. Other large counties reported large early turnouts as well, with Santa Fe County reporting 53 percent of its registered voters had cast ballots while Sandoval County recorded 43 percent, San Juan 38 percent and Doña Ana 31 percent, data shows.

Los Alamos County may well have grabbed the trophy for turnout, however. Nearly 55 percent of its 13,186 registered voters had voted early or by absentee, numbers show.

All told, 344,286 New Mexicans cast ballots by in-person early voting while 154,628 voted by absentee ballot, the Secretary of State’s office said. That translates to 41.8 percent of the state’s 1,192,818 registered voters.

The Secretary of State’s office did not separate the early and absentee ballots by party, so it was impossible to determine how many Democrats had voted early compared to Republicans.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has repeatedly urged supporters at rallies — and in TV commercials — to vote early, a message that seems to have taken hold in some areas of New Mexico.

Judging by Bernalillo County numbers, Democrats turned out en masse to vote early. More than 101,000 registered Democrats had cast ballots in Bernalillo County through Saturday either through early voting or absentee ballot, compared to more than 63,000 Republicans, according to the Bernalillo County Clerk’s daily election report.