Ballot question missing due to city clerk’s mistake

When voters go to the polls on Election Day, one ballot question will be missing.

Approximately 25,000 people had already voted in Bernalillo County by the time Albuquerque City Councilor Joaquín Baca noticed that his resolution, which would let voters amend part of the City Charter, wasn’t on the ballot.

The missing question was a clerical error, according to the City Clerk’s Office and, as far as staff is aware, it has never happened before.

“We’re reviewing our procedures to prevent future errors and exploring all options to ensure voters can weigh in on this matter as soon as possible,” the City Clerk’s Office said in a statement taking responsibility Wednesday.

The measure would have allowed residents to vote on whether to amend part of the City Charter that forbids the City Council from appropriating funds for a performing arts center that costs more than $10 million without voter approval.

In March, a resolution to create the ballot question was passed by the City Council and signed by Mayor Tim Keller.

The approved ballot question was supposed to read: Shall the City of Albuquerque adopt the following amendment to update the Albuquerque City Charter to repeal the requirement that before the City can appropriate funds for a performing arts center, a majority of voters must approve the proposed performing arts center in a municipal election?

How exactly the question failed to make it onto the ballot months later is unclear, although Baca said the legislative body did its part.

“It’s super unfortunate and I’m very disappointed,” Baca said.

Baca described the question as the “first step” toward building a large-scale performing arts center and catching up to other mid-sized cities in terms of amenities.

“If we want to attract people, if we want to attract doctors — we have to have what other cities have,” Baca said.

As it stands, a small part of the City Charter poses a major roadblock for the project, Baca said.

That part of the charter is a remnant from a tax controversy in the early 1990s.

In 1987, the City Council enacted a 10-year tax to fund “quality-of-life projects” across town. In response, voters approved an amendment to the City Charter putting any “large building projects” up to public vote in 1991, according to past Journal reporting.

Most of the measure was repealed that same year, but the section that applied specifically to performing arts centers remained.

How to resolve the mistake is another question, as Baca said the error is “unprecedented.”

Some options are adding the question to the ballot if there’s a runoff in the mayor’s or council races in December. If that doesn’t happen, it’s unclear if a special election could be held or if it would need to wait until the next election in 2026.

All three options have downsides, Baca said. There’s historically been lower turnout in runoff elections, special elections cost taxpayers money, and waiting a year would further delay development.

“What are the rules for this — it’s kind of unclear,” he said.