Rise in City Runoffs May Come in ’13

Bid To Bring Change To Election System on Track

More runoff elections could be in store for City Hall as soon as next year.

Supporters of a plan to change Albuquerque’s election system say they have submitted about 17,000 petition signatures, and thousands more are on the way. About 73 percent of the signatures checked so far are valid, according to the City Clerk’s Office.

That puts the initiative on track to hit the signature requirement to force a special election on whether to change the City Charter. Supporters need 12,091 valid signatures from Albuquerque voters by Tuesday.

Their proposal would require the city to hold a second election — a “runoff” — anytime a candidate fails to win 50 percent in the initial round of voting. Under the current system, the candidate with the most votes wins outright if he or she has at least 40 percent of the vote.

Paul Broome, a retired educator and spokesman for the effort, said the goal is to ensure that like-minded candidates don’t split the vote, allowing someone with a minority viewpoint

to win.

In some cases, he said, “the majority of people who’ve come to the polls haven’t voted for the philosophy and objectives of the candidate who wins.”

Albuquerque’s last three mayors — Richard Berry, Martin Chávez and Jim Baca — each won at least one race without a majority of votes.

Broome worked as an aide to Chávez, a Democrat, and he said local union groups have been active in gathering petition signatures.

Critics of requiring more runoffs say the extra elections are expensive, unnecessarily prolong campaigning into late November and sometimes draw smaller turnout.

Berry will be up for re-election as mayor next year, and some say the proposed change is intended to make it harder for him to beat a Democrat. Berry won about 44 percent of the vote in 2009 to beat out two Democrats, Chávez and Richard Romero.

Albuquerque municipal elections are nonpartisan. Party affiliation doesn’t appear on the ballot and there are no primary elections to winnow the field.

The first election is in early October, and the runoff, if needed, is about 45 days later — usually late November.

Albuquerque has used the 40 percent rule for its runoffs since 2005, when it was reinstated. There were no runoffs in the eight years before that because the previous system had been successfully challenged in court.

City Councilor Don Harris, who won a runoff election in 2005, said he’s “ambivalent” about the proposal for more runoffs.

“On the one hand, I think 40 percent is enough to keep out a fringe candidate with a very narrow base,” Harris said. “But there’s a compelling argument that everyone elected should have 50 percent.”

The question is whether it’s worth the cost of having extra elections more often, he said. He noted that primary elections around the state don’t involve runoffs, no matter how many candidates run.

City Council President Dan Lewis is skeptical of the change.

“My first question is, ‘ Was there a problem? What needed to be fixed and why?’” he said. “I don’t know if they’ve made the case for that.”

In any case, changing the runoff provision would require voter approval.

If the initiative succeeds in gathering enough signatures, the city will be required to hold an election on the issue within 90 days. A school election is already scheduled for February, so the city would probably hold a special election in early March, City Clerk Amy Bailey said.

A mail-in election would cost about $550,000. Traditional polling centers would cost at least $750,000, she said.

The budget for her office didn’t include funding for a special election, so the city would probably draw on its reserves, Bailey said.

Several election systems are used by New Mexico cities.

In Rio Rancho, the election rules require runoffs in races with three or more candidates where no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes cast, similar to what’s been proposed in Albuquerque.

The municipal charter in Santa Fe, meanwhile, calls for allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If, after counting all voters’ first choices, no candidate emerges with a majority of votes cast, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated.

Each ballot listing the eliminated candidate as first choice is recounted using the voter’s second choice. The process can be repeated until a candidate receives a majority of votes for a particular office, according to the city of Santa Fe’s website. The system, which was approved by voters in 2008, will go into effect as soon as the proper software and equipment are available at a reasonable price.