Republicans are outstripping Democrats in the number of absentee ballots returned. Of the more than 20,000 absentee ballots returned, 10,900 are from registered Republicans and another 8,532 are from registered Democrats. The remaining 1,871 are listed as “other.”

In the 2008 general election, over 126,000 early in-person voters cast early in person votes in Bernalillo County. Of those, 69,385 were Democrats, 37,430 were Republicans and the remaining 19,929 were decline to state or third party voters.

Turnout is always higher in presidential elections than midterm elections such as this year’s elections.

Asked for a response to Awad’s concerns, she said of Muslims: ”I don’t trust them at all. They’ve sworn across the world that they are our enemies. Why we’re trying to elect one is beside me.”

Stirman is now getting her 15 minutes of fame. She’s made an appearance on a Wall Street Journal blog, but she probably won’t be too happy about what it says:

One of the most striking parts of Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama was his accusation that Republicans have helped spread the rumor that Sen. Obama is Muslim, and turned the word into a smear. “I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion he’s Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists,” he said.

Some Republicans took umbrage at the comment, saying John McCain and Republicans haven’t directly made such an accusation. Jonah Goldberg, a writer for The National Review, said it was a “low and dishonest blow,” and asked: “Is there really much evidence that the GOP or the McCain campaign have had anything to do with the stories that Obama is a Muslim?”

You should really read the whole post, but the short answer is yes.

Early voting turnout in Albuquerque has been heavy. Photo by Joanne Elgart Jennings

The Albuquerque Journal reports today that folks are waiting in line for more than an hour at early voting sites. The UNM and Northeast Heights locations have been the busiest, while Downtown and South Valley locations have seen the lightest turnout. For a full list of early voting sites, click here. Or see a map here(via Duke City Fix).

The Albuquerque Journal’s Metro section has a weird little story today about the Republican candidate for Bernalillo County Clerk, Rick Abraham. Apparently, around 10 p.m. Saturday night, Abraham was cruising by an early voting site in the Northeast Heights, when he saw the lights on and two women working inside. He became suspicious and called the police. The cops came, said everything was fine. AND THEN, Abraham waited for the women to leave and took pictures of them as they left. One of the women said a car followed her home that night and she’s now afraid for her safety. Abraham’s opponent, sitting County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, is mad. Read more here.

It is all Jerome Block all the time over at the Santa Fe Reporter’s Swing State of Mind blog. Editor Julia Goldberg has posted videos from last night’s forum with Democrat Jerome Block, Jr. and his opponent in the race for Public Regulation Commission, Green Party candidate Rick Lass. (The video is in three pieces. Start here.) Dave Maass has a long examination of a Block’s recent complaint to the Secretary of State regarding Lass’s campaign expenditures. And he looks into remaining areas for potential investigation of Block, who’s already in deep doo-doo with the SOS. Two words for you, Jerome Block: glass houses.

Best headline of the day? “New Mexico Gov. Richardson spots ‘rainbow’ as he speaks in Immokalee.” That’s Immokalee, Florida, and Richardson was there yesterday campaigning for Obama. The “rainbow” he referred to was a multicultural crowd.

Also, it’s gonna freeze tonight, so bring in that bougainvillea.