New Mexico’s top election official this week criticized the Albuquerque City Council’s proposition to change the city’s majority rules for voting by lowering the threshold to win an election. 

At their June 17 meeting, city councilors voted 6-3 to remove the city’s majority voting rules and allow City Council and mayoral candidates with the highest number of votes to win.  The proposal would replace the majority voting system — a change Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said is a move in the wrong direction. 

In a June 25 letter, Toulouse Oliver told Mayor Tim Keller and councilors she has deep concerns about the proposal’s impact on the electoral process and urged them to reconsider. 

“Albuquerque voters already approved the current 50% threshold for winning candidates in 2013, and having candidates receive at least 50% of the total votes provides the public with a clear winner who then has a mandate to lead,” Toulouse Oliver wrote. “Changing the city’s election system to one where a candidate can be elected with a minority of votes is a big step in the wrong direction.”

The letter goes on to state that the legitimacy of New Mexico’s elections has been under significant strain in recent years, and people deserve to have leaders who win with a majority of the votes. Toulouse Oliver also wrote that she is aware that the city’s existing runoff structure has “hefty price tags,” and the best solution is a ranked choice voting system. 

A ranked choice voting system allows voters to rank candidates by preference on a ballot and was introduced as an ordinance at the council’s June 3 meeting but failed on a 3-6 vote.

Read Toulouse Oliver’s full letter below.

After the June 17 meeting, Keller announced his plan to veto the proposal but did not specify when he intends to do so. A spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office told City Desk ABQ they have not yet received the legislation from the City Council needed for the veto process.