By Lauren Lifke
Former Bernalillo County commissioner Steven Michael Quezada filed a lawsuit Wednesday to remove Teresa Garcia from the Albuquerque City Council Ballot as he alleges she failed to submit the 500 valid petition signatures required for ballot placement, according to a news release.
Garcia, who is running for city councilor of District 3 encompassing Southwest Albuquerque, submitted 728 lines of signatures with her declaration of candidacy — but 265 of those are being challenged, according to the court filing.
Though the city clerk accepted 530 of the signatures as valid, the lawsuit alleges that 67 of those are invalid because they are duplicate names of those found on petitions of District 3 candidates Christopher Sedillo and incumbent Klarissa Peña.
“This lawsuit is about upholding the integrity of our elections,” Quezada said in the news release.
A contractor with the plaintiffs’ law firm found that those 67 were duplicates, but Garcia’s campaign manager, Danny Maki, said they had already eliminated the duplicates.
“We’ve done the work and we were approved by the city, and we have also been approved by the county,” Garcia said.
The complaint also alleges that 29 additional signatures, which were gathered in the weeks leading up to the filing deadline on Aug. 26, are also invalid because they were past the deadline for getting petition signatures “120 days before the election,” according to the complaint, which was on July 7.
“Even though the deadline for the city did end, as a privately financed candidate, it doesn’t mean that I can’t continue to gather signatures,” Garcia said.
In a news release, Garcia alleged that incumbent District 3 Councilor Klarissa Peña is behind the lawsuit. Quezada’s wife is currently Councilor Peña’s paid assistant, Garcia wrote in the release.
“I am calling the Albuquerque Ethics Board and the City of Albuquerque Inspector General to investigate the corrupt ties,” Garcia wrote.