Price tag of Albuquerque's runoff election reigniting ranked-choice voting debate

With early voting underway in the race to decide who will be Albuquerque's next mayor, the cost of the city’s runoff election is generating renewed scrutiny.

Bernalillo County election officials have projected it will cost $1.6 million to administer this year's runoff election, which includes the mayoral showdown between incumbent Tim Keller and challenger Darren White, along with two city council races.

That cost, along with other factors, has prompted some advocates to urge Albuquerque to follow the lead of other New Mexico cities in adopting ranked-choice voting.

"This is not a new concept," said Cesar Marquez, a senior organizer with Common Cause New Mexico, which has joined with other groups to push for ranked-choice voting in Albuquerque. "It's already being done by Santa Fe and Las Cruces for a few election cycles now."

Santa Fe, which first used ranked-choice voting in 2018, used the system to elect Michael Garcia as the city's next mayor last month in a race that featured eight candidates.

Las Cruces also utilizes ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to list their candidates by order of preference when casting a ballot. A winner is determined by "instant runoff" on election night as a computer tallies voters' rankings over as many rounds as necessary.

In Albuquerque, a 2024 push to amend Albuquerque's city charter by implementing ranked-choice voting failed to win City Council approval, but backers say they plan to try again.

The outcomes of the two city council runoff elections could be pivotal in determining the short-term fate of ranked-choice voting, Marquez said. That's because candidates Teresa Garcia and Stephanie Telles both support changing the city's voting system.

However, supporters might have to win over critics who say ranked-choice voting isn't without its flaws.

"Ranked-choice voting violates one person, one vote," said City Councilor Dan Lewis, who won reelection last month. "It's unfair, complicated and untrusted. As long as I'm on the council, I'll ensure it never happens."

Albuquerque is not the only New Mexico city that uses a runoff election to decide local races in which no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast, as Gallup also uses a top-two runoff system.

Meanwhile, the $1.6 million estimate for this year's Albuquerque runoff election is due to costs associated with voting machines and staffing 17 early voting sites and 50 voting sites on Election Day, said Nathan Jaramillo, the Bernalillo County Bureau of Elections administrator.

The cost of holding a runoff election is one of the main arguments that supporters of ranked-choice voting are using, as that money could be better spent on other programs, Marquez said.

As of Monday afternoon, a total of 20,963 voters in Albuquerque had cast a ballot for the runoff election via absentee or early voting, according to Bernalillo County Clerk's Office data. That figure represents about 5.7% of the city's more than 365,000 registered voters.

Registered Democrats made up more than half of the voters who have already cast a ballot, with Republicans representing 28% and independents — or those who decline to state a party affiliation — making up most of the remaining voters.

While voters will decide the outcomes of several key races, one issue that won't appear on the ballot for the runoff election is a ballot question that was inadvertently omitted from the Nov. 4 election ballot.

That ballot question, which deals with a requirement in the city charter that voters must approve a performing arts center before the city can appropriate funds for such a project, will instead be placed on the 2026 ballot, said Albuquerque City Clerk Ethan Watson.

He said the decision to postpone the ballot question was made due to provisions in state law that precluded it from being placed on the runoff election ballot.

Early voting will run through Saturday, with Election Day set for Dec. 9.