2020 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 1 - Elections
Article 8 - Nominations and Primary Elections
Section 1-8-36.1 - Primary Election Law; write-in candidates. (Contingent effective date. See note below.)
A. Write-in candidates are permitted in the primary election only for the offices of United States representative, members of the legislature, district judges, district attorneys, public education commission, magistrates and any office voted upon by all voters of the state.
B. A person may be a write-in candidate only for nomination by the major political party with which the person is affiliated as shown by the certificate of registration, and such person shall have the qualifications to be a candidate in the primary election for the political party for which the person is a write-in candidate.
C. A person desiring to be a write-in candidate for one of the offices listed in Subsection A of this section in the primary election shall file with the proper filing officer a declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate. Such declaration of intent shall be filed between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on the third Tuesday in March.
D. At the time of filing the declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate, the write-in candidate shall be considered a candidate for all purposes and provisions relating to candidates in the Election Code, including the obligations to report pursuant to the Campaign Reporting Act [1-19-25 to 1-19-36 NMSA 1978], except that the write-in candidate's name shall not be printed on the ballot.
History: 1978 Comp., § 1-8-36.1, enacted by Laws 1981, ch. 156, § 1; 1993, ch. 314, § 48; 1993, ch. 316, § 48; 1994, ch. 2, § 2; 1998, ch. 36, § 6; 2009, ch. 150, § 7; 2011, ch. 137, § 59; 2019, ch. 212, § 95; 2020, ch. 9, § 6.
ANNOTATIONSContingent effective date. — Laws 2020, ch. 9, § 6 amended 1-8-36.1 NMSA 1978, effective January 1, 2023, contingent upon certification by the secretary of state that the constitution of New Mexico has been amended as proposed by a joint resolution of the first session of the fifty-fourth legislature (Laws 2019, SJC/SRC/SJR Nos. 1 and 4, CA #1) at the general election to be held on November 3, 2020.
The 2020 amendment, effective January 1, 2023, removed the public regulation commission from the write-in qualifications for certain offices; and in Subsection A, after "district attorneys", deleted "public regulation commission".
