The Albuquerque City Council defeated a proposal in a 6-3 vote on Monday that would have introduced ranked choice voting for city elections.
Council members debated into the late hours on whether Albuquerque should adopt ranked choice voting, a method that is already used in Santa Fe and Las Cruces and by the Albuquerque City Council for internal council seat elections.
Ranked choice voting, also known as instant-runoff voting, allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference rather than just selecting one candidate. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote of the first-choice votes, they win. Otherwise, a candidate with the least amount of votes, is eliminated and their supporters' votes are redistributed to the next preferred candidate until 50% is achieved. This method of voting would eliminate the need to runoff elections.
Councilwoman Stephanie Telles, a supporter of the proposal, spoke during a rally before the meeting about how this form of voting saves taxpayers money by avoiding a runoff election, which she said can cost as much as $1.8 million.
“1.8 million to a $35 million budget may seem like, you know, a drop in the bucket, but it's not,” she said. “Every penny matters when we are trying to balance our city budget. And so this is one way to do that.”
During public comment, supporters discussed barriers military members face when voting in runoffs; including receiving two ballots and sending them back across the world on time. Ranked choice voting would mean they’d only have to vote once.
Councilman Dan Lewis, voted against the proposal and said ranked choice voting would be too difficult to understand, citing an article from the Santa Fe New Mexican that showed ongoing confusion among residents there.
“Tonight, you've heard people making accusations that if you oppose ranked choice voting, then you're calling people dumb. I'm not calling people dumb or confused. And I guess my question is, why? Why in the world would you all need to do more education about ranked choice voting, if it's something that is so easily understood?” he said.
Opponents also said it would dilute votes and that maintaining existing systems keeps elections simple and transparent. This is the fourth attempt to pass ranked choice voting. Council members cannot introduce it again for another two years.
Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
