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Alert
Polls open: Voters to decide City Council, APS board races Tuesday
Election worker Stephanie Aldridge gives Arthur Castillo his “I voted” sticker after he puts his ballot into the voting machine at the Los Altos Plaza early voting location on Wyoming NE. Polls will remain open until 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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More than 10% of eligible voters already have cast votes as Election Day dawns Tuesday, with Albuquerque City Council and Albuquerque Public School Board seats at stake, along with a raft of bond issues.
Polling places will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at 72 locations across Bernalillo County where voters may cast votes in person or hand-deliver completed absentee ballots.
A complete list of voting locations is available at the Bernalillo County Clerk election website.
More coverage and candidate questionnaires are available at ABQJournal.com/election.
Four Albuquerque City Council seats and three Albuquerque Public School Board positions are up for grabs in this election.
Voters also will decide on seven general obligation bond questions that could provide some $200 million for public safety, affordable housing, parks and other projects.
Voters in Los Ranchos and the Village of Tijeras will also elect mayors.
“The entire county is actually eligible to vote on something on this ballot,” Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover said Monday. With no state or national races on the ballot, local elections tend to have low turnout, she said. “But that’s really a shame when you think about what local elections mean to us locally.”
A total of 44,628 early and absentee voters, or 10.5% of eligible voters, had already cast their votes as of Friday, according to the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office.
This election is guaranteed to deliver at least three, and possibly four, new City Council members. Councilors Pat Davis, Isaac Benton and Trudy Jones chose not to seek reelection this year.
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Only one incumbent City Councilor, Brook Bassan, is on the ballot, seeking a second term in District 4 in Northeast Albuquerque. She will face off against Abby Foster, a small business owner, attorney and mediator who practices adult guardianship law.
The most crowded race is in District 6 in Southeast Albuquerque, including Nob Hill and the International District, where Nichole Rogers, Jeff Hoehn, Kristin “Raven” Greene and Abel Otero are listed on the ballot. However, Otero announced last month he was ending his campaign.
A candidate must garner at least 50% of the vote to win outright. If no candidate wins a majority of the vote, a runoff election will be held in December.
The two other City Council races are in District 2, where Loretta Naranjo Lopez faces off against Moisés González and Joaquín Baca, and in District 8, where Dan Champine faces Idalia Lechuga-Tena.
Also on the ballot are three of the seven APS Board seats.
The only incumbent seeking reelection is Peggy Muller-Aragón, who faces challengers Adrian Nogales and Ronalda Tome-Warito.
The other races and candidates are:
- District 1: Janelle Astorga, Robert Trujillo and Verland Coker.
- District 4: Heather Benavidez and Stephen Cecco.
