Turnout was heavy at polling sites in Santa Fe and Albuquerque as early voting started Saturday.

In fact, waiting times were so long at a south-side Santa Fe location that some people who wanted to cast their ballots ahead of the Nov. 4 election gave up and left.

And people who tried to vote downtown at the Santa Fe County administration building on Grant Avenue found the front doors locked Saturday and a sign posted that blamed the Secretary of State's Office for misinformation mailed to voters about that site.

Workers ran out of pens at the packed voting site at the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds, where some voters waited for more than hour Saturday morning to cast ballots.

"The line is out the door and into the parking lot," Santa Fe County Clerk Valerie Espinoza said. "There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people out to vote. They're showing up in droves."

Espinoza said a brochure sent to 90,000 voters in Santa Fe County by Secretary of State Mary Herrera's office mistakenly told voters the downtown building that houses the County Clerk's Office was open for early voting Saturday. "That's really caused a lot of grief," Espinoza said. "People are getting testy. They don't deserve that and neither do I."
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