ABQ to have mail-in election to decide runoff question

Albuquerque voters won’t have to leave their homes to decide on whether the threshold for runoffs should be raised to 50 percent.

Currently if a candidate does not reach 40 percent, there will be a separate runoff election between the top-two vote-getters. Voters will decide if that should go up to 50 percent in a March 11 vote.

One of the interesting parts of the election — besides deciding a major change to Albuquerque’s elections — is that it will be a mail-in election.

New Mexico Telegram spoke to Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver about the electio last weekn and how it will work.

“Every registered voter that’s eligible would get a ballot in the mail,” Toulouse Oliver told New Mexico Telegram. Toulouse Oliver did not know when the ballots would be sent out for the election, but suspects it would be two to three weeks before the election date.

One thing that Toulouse Oliver was looking into is who would foot the bill for postage — the voter or the city.

“To me the onus is on the government for the postage,” said said.

The county did a mail-in vote in 2007 to approve an expansion of Central New Mexico Community College borders to Rio Rancho. This is the last vote-by-mail only election in the Albuquerque metro area.

For those who do not receive a ballot for whatever reason, Toulouse Oliver says there will be an in-person in-lieu-of-absentee ballot location.

The Albuquerque City Council decided on the date and the method of election in their meeting on Monday night. This vote come after supporters of the measure gathered enough signatures to place it on the ballot.