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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Park

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/23/2007

HB 1269

SHORT TITLE

Political Party Candidate Nomination

SB

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Conflicts with: House bill 1099.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Secretary of State (SOS)

Attorney General’s Office (AGO)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 1269 amends sections of the Election Code to generally remove requirements that

persons be members of the political parties nominating them as candidates for political office and

that persons signing nominating petitions be members of political parties.

Specifically, the bill:

1.

Removes NMSA Section 1-4-16B which currently requires that every person appearing

as a candidate on the primary or general election ballot be a candidate only under the

name and party affiliation designation appearing on his existing certificate of registration

on file in the county clerk's office on the date of the governor's proclamation of a primary

election;

2.

Amends NMSA Section 1-8-2D to allow a person to be certified as the nominee of a

minor political party without being a member of that party before the day the governor

issues the primary election proclamation if the state committee of the party has

authorized the nomination of that person by a majority vote; and the rules of the party, if

House Bill 1269 – Page

2

any, do not prohibit the acceptance of nominations;

3.

Removes the requirement in NMSA Section 1-8-8B that a vacancy on the general

election ballot be filled by a nominee who belongs to the same political party as the

original nominee;

4.

Removes the requirement in NMSA Section 1-8-18A(1) that a person nominated by a

political party for a primary election be a member of that political party on the date of the

governor's proclamation for the primary election;

5.

Amends NMSA Section 1-8-21.1C to prohibit state conventions of major political parties

from taking only one ballot upon candidates for each office to be filled and removes the

requirement that the certificate of designation filed by the party with the Secretary of

State certify that the candidate has been a member of that political party for the period of

time required by the Election Code;

6.

Amends NMSA Section 1-8-27 removing prohibitions against a proper filing officer

accepting for filing more than one declaration of candidacy from any one individual and

requiring that candidates who seek but fail to receive preprimary convention designation

file a declaration of candidacy by nomination in order to have their names placed on the

primary election ballot;

7.

Amends NMSA Section 1-8-29 relating to the Declaration of Candidacy Form to remove

the certification that is a member of a certain political party and has not changed that

party affiliation subsequent to the governor's proclamation calling the primary election;

8.

Removes the prohibition in NMSA Section 1-8-31 against counting a signature on a

nominating petition unless the person signing is a member of the candidates political

party ten days prior to the filing of the nominating petition;

9.

Revises nominating petition signature requirements set forth in NMSA Section 1-8-33 to

remove references to a “candidates’ party" and replace them with references to “the party

whose nomination the candidate is seeking";

10.

Amends NMSA Section 1-8-36.1 to allow a person to be a write-in candidate if they are

qualified for the office they are seeking, without regard to political party affiliation;

11.

Amends NMSA Section 1-10-7 to allow a persons name to appear on the ballot more

than once, for each party that has nominated them;

12.

Adds a new section providing that for purposes of determining which candidate has been

elected, votes cast for the same candidate under multiple party names shall be totaled. For

all other purposes, including party qualification, votes cast under different party names

shall be counted and recorded separately. A voter who attempts to vote for the same

candidate under multiple party lines shall have the voter's vote counted as if the voter had

voted for that candidate on a line without any party name; provided that a vote for the

same candidate under multiple party names shall not be treated as an overvote;

13.

Repeals NMSA Section 1-8-19 which prohibits a person who has been a candidate for the

nomination of a major political party in the primary election from having his name

printed on the ballot at the next succeeding general election except under the party name

of the party designated on his declaration of candidacy filed for such primary election.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The AGO advises that this bill appears to adopt a modified version of the concept of “fusion

voting", proposed by the Progressive America Fund, Inc., and its National Open Ballot Project.

According to the corporate web site, “fusion voting" addresses the perceived “problem" of third

parties encouraging votes for candidates who can't win, or acting as "spoilers". Under the

concept of “fusion voting", as apparently incorporated in this bill, different parties can nominate

House Bill 1269 – Page

3

the same candidate, yet keep their own place on the ballot. Voters have the option of voting for

their preferred candidates on the line of any party that has endorsed them. Votes for each party

are tallied separately, but added together to determine the winner. New Mexico is considered by

that organization to be a “direct ban state", whose statutes directly ban “fusion" around major

party candidates by requiring party affiliation.

http://www.nmef.org/fusionoverview.html

.

`

The bill would affect candidates in both primary and general elections.

This bill appears to allow political parties to nominate candidates for election who are not

members of those parties. It may have the unintended effect of allowing one person to run for

several offices during the same election. It would allow one person to run for election as a

representative of several different political parties. It would also allow any registered voter to

sign a nominating petition for a candidate, regardless of their political party affiliation. The bill

would also require state political party conventions to take more than one ballot upon candidates

for each office to be filled. Write-in candidates need not belong to a political party.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 1099 also amends NMSA Section 1-8-36.1 relating to write-in candidates.

GM/mt