NOTE: As provided in LFC policy, this report is intended for use by the standing finance committees of the legislature. The Legislative Finance Committee does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this report when used in any other situation.
| SPONSOR: | Hobbs | DATE TYPED: | 01/26/99 | HB | HJR 1 | ||
| SHORT TITLE: | Municipal Runoff Election, CA | SB | |||||
| ANALYST: | Burch | ||||||
| Recurring
or Non-Rec |
Fund
Affected | ||||
| FY99 | FY2000 | FY99 | FY2000 | ||
| $ 17.0 | Nonrecurring | GF | |||
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates Senate Joint Resolution 1
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC files
Secretary of State
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
The joint resolution proposes to amend Article 7, Section 5 of the New Mexico Constitution to allow municipalities to provide for runoff elections by ordinance.
Significant Issues
In elections with large numbers of candidates, runoff elections will allow the successful candidate to obtain higher numbers of votes and will provide for a clearer mandate from the voters. At the present time, successful candidates are winning with numbers significantly less than 51 percent of the votes cast.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The Secretary of State reports that it costs $17.0 to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
Municipalities will incur higher costs with the runoff system as there will be more elections taking place and the need to hire necessary personnel to monitor and tabulate the results will increase. In addition, advertising costs and the costs for voting machine leasing or purchasing may increase.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
The municipal election code provides that complaints regarding the conduct of the election by the code are filed with the Secretary of State. Runoff elections would ostensibly increase the number of investigations and determinations needed by this office.
DKB/prr:njw