ABQ councilors to take up city election bills
Albuquerque councilors to take up city election bills
Albuquerque city councilors are expected as soon as next month to consider bills to comply with a new state election law, as well as a proposed public financing city charter amendment bill.
City Clerk Katy Duhigg told the Journal on Friday that the proposed legislation would place the city in compliance with the Local Election Act, which went into effect July 1, but also to what she said would make the election process smoother for both candidates and voters.
“We have to do this under state law,” she said. “We’re (also) taking this opportunity to make a lot of fixes that are long overdue in an effort to ensure that our election process is working smoothly and treating everyone fairly.”
The new state statute requires the city to either move its elections to a consolidated
local election in November of odd-numbered years or hold non-consolidated elections in March of even-numbered years.
The bill councilors are expected to consider would move the city’s elections to November of odd-numbered years. If councilors take no action, the city’s next election automatically would move to March 2020.
A consolidated November election date would move runoff elections to December and term starting dates to January. Six council votes would be needed to move the election to November.
Municipal elections currently take place in October of odd-number years with runoffs in November and successful candidates taking office in December.
Councilors also are expected to take up an election code ordinance bill designed to “encourage compliance with election laws and discourage frivolous complaints,” clean up and add definitions to establish expectations for candidates, close campaign finance loopholes and make the campaign finance reporting schedule match the state’s schedule.
The bill would need to pass with seven council votes or with six votes and voter approval.
Councilors also are expected to consider a proposed public financing city charter amendment, which would need at least six council votes to pass, then voter approval in a special election.
There are two aims of the proposed amendment, Duhigg said.
“First is to make public financing more competitive and accessible so that a wider pool of candidates have an incentive to reduce money in politics,” Duhigg said. “The second is to bring more accountability and oversight to public financing and make sure we are protecting taxpayer money.”
The proposed amendment would increase the public financing distribution for mayoral and council races from $1 per voter to $1.75 cents per voter for regular elections and from 33 cents to 60 cents for runoff elections.
The proposal also would increase seed money from $100 per person to $250 per person and the aggregate seed money from 10 percent to 20 percent of distribution, but the distribution would be reduced by the amount of seed money collected.
The proposed amendment also would increase the length of qualifying period and match dates to the petition signature period for mayoral and council races.
If the bill were to pass, the city could consolidate its special election for the proposed city charter amendment with an Albuquerque Public Schools special election scheduled for February.