Automatic recounts in multiple local election competitions and a New Mexico voting question will be automatically recounted Tuesday.
The state election committee met in Santa Fe on Tuesday to confirm the results of the November 2 local elections and ordered automatic recounts for competitions where unofficial results were equal or close enough to trigger a recount under electoral rules.
The board of directors consists of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Chief Justice Michael Vigil of the New Mexico Supreme Court, who voted unanimously to confirm the 2021 local election results.
According to the law, automatic recounts are required when the distance between two candidates is sufficiently small.
The margin required to avoid an automatic recount varies between a quarter or half a percent and up to 1% of the votes cast, depending on the competition.
Unofficial results of the local elections included a tie between candidates for a seat on the Village Council in the House of Representatives, a position on the board of directors of the Dulce Independent School District and a public school tax issue affecting the Moriarty-Edgewood School District.
Two city judge posts in the state got close enough to require a recount. In Anthony, Judge Rafael Ramos, who was appointed to the bench in 2018, followed with four votes behind Sarah Holguin. In a three-way election in Belen to succeed Judge Kathy Savilla, Keith Norwood had one more vote than Yvette Padilla.
In a race for two positions in the House Village Council, Matthew Cramblett received 24 votes in unofficial results, and two other candidates, Anita Allen and Steven Foust, received 17 votes each.
Some other competitions had margins of one or two votes between candidates, such as seats on the school committee for the Aztec Municipal School District, Bloomfield School District, and Clayton Municipal Schools.
In the event the recounts confirm a tie, New Mexico requires that the competitions be decided by drawing lots.
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