BF council still holding off on local election decision

BOSQUE FARMS — The county’s northernmost municipality is still on the fence about moving it’s elections to Novembers under the state’s Local Election Act.

Since December, the Bosque Farms Village Council has been exploring whether to move the village’s municipal elections to November in odd numbered years, getting in sync with the rest of the municipalities in Valencia County.

The cities of Belen and Rio Communities moved to November elections in 2019, and the village of Los Lunas and town of Peralta changed in 2021, while Bosque Farms stayed with its traditional election cycle of March in even-numbered years.

The council members’ main concern has been whether the traditional polling location for municipal elections at the Bosque Farms Public Library, as well as for primary and general elections in even years, would remain.

If the council approves the ordinance and moves its elections, the Valencia County Clerk’s Office would run the election as it does for other municipalities and nonpartisan local boards.

At the May 18 council meeting, Mayor Russ Walkup said he spoke to staff at the county clerk’s office and was told the library polling place would stay.

“We have to take their word for it. I think they would have major push-back and be flooded with a lot of complaints if there was not one here or close by. They would feel the wrath,” Walkup said. “At this point there’s no reason to doubt their word.”

Valencia County Clerk Mike Milam said the library was an ideal polling location for the clerk’s office.

“It has been a polling location for a very long time and we’ll keep it there as long as we’re around,” Milam said, referring to himself and county bureau of elections director Candace Teague. “It’s a premium location.”

Teague said the clerk’s office strives to keep polling locations consistent for voters.

“While it’s impossible to say it will be (at the library) forever, it will always be a recommendation from me, and Bosque Farms will always have a District 5 commissioner,” Teague said. “I think the library is the best place, and unless something extraordinary happens, I don’t see why it would go away.”

Councilor Michael Cheromiah asked if a requirement for a Bosque Farms polling location could be written into the ordinance. Village attorney Mark Jarmie said the council could certainly include that caveat but he wasn’t sure how enforceable it would be.

“You can request written assurances from the Valencia County clerk that there will always be a polling location open here, but beyond that you don’t have a lot of power or authority to force the county to do that,” Jarmie said. “It would probably be in the best interest of the community to ask the Valencia County clerk to put something in writing.”

The council asked Walkup to speak to the county clerk about some kind of written assurance of a polling place.

Councilor Ronita Wood asked if council candidates would be required to file and run in districts, as they were asked to do in 2022. That year the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office directed the village to assign position numbers to the two open seats on the council, meaning candidates would have to declare for either Position 1 or 2.

Due to the village’s population, by law it’s not required to be divided into geographically defined council districts and councilors run at-large, meaning they just have to live within village boundaries.

While candidates did have to indicate which position they were running for in 2022 when they filed, the final ballots presented to voters read in the traditional way — three at-large candidates with direction to pick two.

Former village clerk/administrator Gayle Jones, who attended the May council meeting, said new legislation passed in the 2023 session put at-large positions back in the language of the Local Election Act, eliminating the requirement for positions.

The council voted 3-0 to postpone a vote on the proposed ordinance until its next scheduled meeting on Thursday, June 15. Councilor Bryan Burks was not at the May meeting.

If the ordinance is adopted, it would move the March 2024 village election to November of this year, shortening the terms for the seats coming up in the next election cycle — mayor, currently held by Russell Walkup; municipal judge, held by Dolly Wallace, and the council positions held by Ronita Wood and Bryan Burks.

Candidates will have to file for office at the county clerk’s office in Los Lunas in August if the village moves the election.

The council had the option to move the election to November of 2025, extending those terms, but that wasn’t something Walkup was comfortable with doing.

With a November election, the newly elected officials would take office on Jan. 1.