{"id":303782,"date":"2017-03-11T16:33:54","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T23:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=303782"},"modified":"2017-03-11T20:37:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-12T03:37:05","slug":"compromise-with-cities-moves-bill-to-consolidate-elections-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/03\/compromise-with-cities-moves-bill-to-consolidate-elections-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Compromise with cities moves bill to consolidate elections forward"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

Voters wait to cast ballots in a 2015 Soil and Water Conservation District election in Las Cruces. Turnout for that election was higher than usual but still in the single digits percentage-wise. Many believe consolidating smaller elections would reduce costs, increase public awareness and raise voter turnout.<\/p><\/div>\n

A bill to consolidate most local elections into one would now let cities opt out and continue holding\u00a0their own elections.<\/p>\n

Democratic members of the Senate Rules Committee made the change to\u00a0House Bill 174<\/a>\u00a0on Saturday and then unanimously voted to move the legislation forward. Republicans on the committee didn’t show up for the vote.<\/p>\n

The amendment to let cities opt out comes after Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima and some other city officials from around the state opposed<\/a> being forced to join their elections with those for school districts and other local governments. The House has already approved the bill<\/a>\u00a0with the requirement that cities consolidate their elections with others.<\/p>\n

That means if the Senate OKs the legislation as it’s currently written the House will\u00a0have to decide whether to concur with the Senate Rules amendment\u00a0before Gov. Susana Martinez would get to decide whether to sign the bill. Martinez\u00a0hasn’t take a position<\/a> on the legislation.<\/p>\n

The compromise that lets cities opt out was apparently necessary to get the votes to proceed. Do\u00f1a Ana County Clerk Scott Krahling, who has been lobbying for the bill,\u00a0wrote on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0after the Senate Rules vote that he supported the amendment.<\/p>\n

“While this isn’t ideal, it is still an improvement,” Krahling wrote. “It means that if this becomes law it will be up to you to let your city councilor know whether or not you want them to make voting easier and to save money by consolidating elections. To me it’s obvious!”<\/p>\n

The bill would\u00a0consolidate elections for school districts, special hospital districts, community college districts, technical and vocational institute districts, learning center districts, arroyo flood control districts, special zoning districts, soil and water conservation districts, and water and sanitation districts beginning in 2019. Cities would be included as well unless their governing bodies approve\u00a0an ordinance opting out. In 2023 the bill\u00a0would also add conservancy district elections.<\/p>\n

The bill\u00a0would not consolidate elections for mutual domestics or homeowner associations.<\/p>\n

If the bill becomes\u00a0law,\u00a0one November you\u2019d vote in partisan races like county commission, state Legislature and U.S. Congress, and the next you\u2019d vote in nonpartisan races the legislation\u00a0would consolidate. The intent is to increase voter turnout by making it easier for people\u00a0to understand when and where they can vote and bring more attention to elections by having more candidates and issues on one ballot.<\/p>\n

Some school districts and community colleges have also opposed the legislation<\/a>, which appears to be moving forward in spite of their opposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill to consolidate most local elections into one would now let cities opt out and continue holding their own elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3329,115,145,107,3351],"class_list":["post-303782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2017-legislative-session","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-las-cruces","tag-roundhouse","tag-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}