2018 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 1 - Elections
Article 13 - Post-Election Duties
Section 1-13-13 - Post-election duties; county canvassing board; certifying results.
A. The county canvassing board shall complete the canvass of the returns and declare the results within ten days from the date of the election. A county canvassing board in a county with more than two hundred fifty thousand voters shall complete the canvass of the returns and declare the results within thirteen days from the date of the election.
B. On the thirty-first day after any primary, general or district special election, the county canvassing board shall issue to those candidates entitled by law election certificates, or certificate of nomination in the case of the primary election, to all county officers, magistrates and to members of the legislature elected from districts wholly within the county. In addition, the county canvassing board shall declare the results, immediately after completion of the canvass, of the election and of all questions affecting only the county.
C. The county canvassing board, immediately after completion of the canvass, shall also certify to the state canvassing board the number of votes cast for all other candidates and questions respectively and shall immediately deliver to the county chair of each political party that participated in the election a certificate showing the total number of votes cast for each candidate in the election in the county.
History: 1953 Comp., § 3-13-14, enacted by Laws 1969, ch. 240, § 316; 1979, ch. 378, § 15; 2015, ch. 145, § 69.
Cross references. — For county canvassing board certifying votes for officers elected by more than one county, see N.M. Const., art. XX, § 7.
The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, required certain counties to complete the canvass of the returns and declare the results within thirteen days from the date of the election; in Subsection A, after "from the date of the election.", added the last sentence of the subsection; and in Subsection C, after "deliver to the county", deleted "chairman" and added "chair".
Board's certificate not binding on court when returns excluded. — Certificate of county canvassing board that contestee had been duly elected did not bind district court when certificate improperly excluded returns from a questioned precinct because unregistered persons supposedly voted and it affirmatively appeared that number of unregistered votes cast was not enough to alter the election result. Miera v. Martinez, 1944-NMSC-005, 48 N.M. 30, 145 P.2d 487 (decided under former law).
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 26 Am. Jur. 2d Elections §§ 400, 401.
29 C.J.S. Elections § 240.
