I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s decision to add a space to November ballots for a write-in candidate for governor was legal, Assistant Attorney General Tania Maestas wrote Thursday in letters to Herrera and state Sen. Howie C. Morales, D-Silver City.
Dianna Duran, Herrera’s Republican challenger in the November election, had objected to Kenneth A. Gomez’s registration as a ‘tea party’ write-in candidate for governor because Gomez has no running mate.
“(T)he New Mexico Constitution states that ‘the governor and lieutenant governor shall be elected jointly by the casting by each voter of a single vote applicable to both offices,” Maestas acknowledged.
But because the space for write-in candidates “requires a single vote,” it is consistent with the constitutional requirements for statewide elections, Maestas wrote.
The write-in line does not require voters to make two separate votes for governor and lieutenant governor, Maestas wrote.
“Mr. Gomez has met all the statutory requirements for certification,” Maestas wrote. “On balance, and absent additional legislative or judicial guidance, it appears that the best course under the circumstances favors permitting the certification of the write-in candidate to stand and to allow votes cast for him to be counted and canvassed. To do otherwise would disenfranchise voters who choose to vote for a candidate who has complied with all statutory requirements.”
