YNMG

Ten cities, towns and villages in New Mexico will have a new face in the mayor’s office next month after Tuesday’s municipal elections, with residents in four of those communities voting out their current executive. Nine mayors were reelected, according to unofficial results.

Rio Rancho voters are heading to the polls Tuesday, March 1, to weigh in on several city offices, including mayor, along with bond measures and charter amendments. The city says its absentee board has rejected a number of ballots.

Municipal elections are underway in 26 New Mexico cities, towns and villages, including all in Sandoval County. Most are electing a mayor among other local offices. Early voting wraps up Saturday, Feb. 26.

State legislators passed only a fraction of the bills and resolutions introduced in this year’s short, 30-day session. One of proposals that stalled in committee was a resolution to reform the way redistricting is conducted in New Mexico. Its sponsor, Democratic Rep. Natalie Figueroa, spoke with KUNM’s Nash Jones about what happened to the legislation and why she’ll continue to advocate for it.

The state isn’t the only New Mexico government flush with cash despite the pandemic. The city of Rio Rancho also fared better than expected. City residents are now being asked to weigh in on what to do with the surprise surplus.

With hours left in the 30-day legislative session, a bill to expand voting rights in New Mexico made it to the Senate floor, but stalled as Republican Sen. William Sharer ran down the clock. Sharer’s filibuster was not the first procedural maneuver Senate Republicans employed to stop voting rights legislation from passing.

After a bill expanding voting rights in New Mexico got hung up on the Senate floor, a version of it remains alive as the 30-day legislative session nears its end.

Most local governments in New Mexico have opted in to the Regular Local Election, which happens every other November. But for those that haven’t, Election Day is coming up on March 1.

A bill that would expand voting rights in New Mexico has lost more key provisions as it moves forward in the state Senate.

The question of whether to have an independent commission, rather than lawmakers, redraw the state’s legislative maps has advanced out of its first committee.