Nine municipal governments around New Mexico held local elections a couple of weeks ago. If you didn’t know anything about this, you’re in good company.
For these municipalities, according to the Secretary of State, there were a total of 122,035 eligible voters. Of those, 9,785 voted. That is 8.02%.
In the off-year consolidated local elections last November, the average turnout was about 20%, or two and a half times as much as this turnout. The municipalities that held elections in March were Artesia, Clovis, Española, Rio Rancho, Santa Rosa, Bernalillo, Cuba, Jemez Springs and Ruidoso.
To remind you of how we got here, from the time of statehood, 1912, until a few years ago, the state constitution required that school board elections must be separate from all other elections. The reason, reputedly, was in 1912 women were not allowed to vote, but there was an exception for school elections.
That limitation ended when the federal 19th Amendment was passed in 1919.
The 1912 state constitution created a weird set of criteria making it almost impossible to reverse the voting restriction. It was so weird it was nicknamed the “unamendable” provision.
It was finally reversed a few years ago when we voters approved a state constitutional amendment, followed by a lawsuit in which the state Supreme Court overruled the “unamendable” restriction.
Now cities, school districts and other districts can hold their nonpartisan local elections together in November of odd-numbered years. But those nine municipalities have not adopted the new method.
Most of these municipalities had one or more contested city council positions as well as some uncontested ones. Several had a municipal judge on the ballot. A few had bond issues.
Here’s a rundown of contested races:
Artesia had one contested city council seat, one municipal judge and the prize for lowest voter turnout, 5.61%. A school board member had been elected in November.
Clovis had the mayor plus four contested city council seats; turnout 11.89%. In November the Clovis school board had two contested seats on the ballot. Villages in the same county (Curry) – Grady, Melrose and Texico – all had their municipal and school elections plus a community college board seat and a soil and water district in November, with a countywide 10% voter turnout.
Española had two contested city council seats and 6.51% turnout, almost as low as Artesia.
Rio Rancho had three contested city council seats, three bond questions, two propositions and 7.08% turnout.
Santa Rosa was the exception, with two at-large city council races and a 33% voter turnout: 646 ballots were cast out of 1,946 eligible voters.
The Town of Bernalillo had 8% turnout. It had one exciting town council seat with three candidates, whose vote totals were 333, 324 and 354. There might be a recount.
Cuba had three seats on the village council, turnout 14.97%.
Jemez Springs had three village trustees, turnout 15.38%.
Ruidoso had four contested councilor-at-large positions and 13% turnout. Lincoln County has several other municipalities and five school districts, all of which voted in November.
The advantage of a consolidated local election system is obvious. First and foremost, there’s enough substance to encourage voters to pay attention. Voters have the convenience of going just once to the polls, as they do in even numbered years for the local, state and national partisan elections. Candidates for the sometimes obscure local districts, like water and sanitation, have a chance to get noticed. The financial savings of the shared election are considerable.
New Mexico has 105 municipalities (106 if you count the city-county of Los Alamos). If you live in one of the nine mentioned above, you might ask a city councilor why your community did not make the switch.
Contact Merilee Dannemann through www.triplespacedagain.com.