A. Elections for the board of trustees shall be held on the first Monday in April or on a day designated in the bylaws, either every two or every four years as specified in the bylaws of the land grant-merced.
B. All qualified voting members of the land grant-merced are qualified to vote and may vote for trustees as specified in the land grant-merced bylaws.
C. The registration of qualified voting members shall be conducted in the manner prescribed in the land grant-merced bylaws. The secretary of the board of trustees shall maintain the registration books. Registration shall be closed beginning fifteen days before an election and reopened on the Monday following the election. The board of trustees shall meet to finalize the registration books by resolution at least five days prior to the election.
D. The registration books compiled before each election shall be used at that election. No person shall vote at the election unless duly registered in the books, and no ballot of any unregistered person shall be counted or canvassed.
E. A candidate for the board of trustees shall file a declaration of candidacy with the secretary of the board of trustees. The period when declarations of candidacy may be filed shall begin on the day the proclamation calling the election is published and shall remain open for at least ten days.
F. Whenever an election is to be called or is required by law, the board of trustees shall by resolution issue a public proclamation calling the election. The proclamation shall specify:
(1) the date on which the election will be held;
(2) the purpose for which the election is called;
(3) if positions on the board of trustees are to be filled, the date and time by which declarations of candidacy are to be filed;
(4) if a question is to be voted upon, the text of that question;
(5) the location of each polling place in the land grant-merced;
(6) the hours that each polling place will be open;
(7) the date and time of the closing of the registration books; and
(8) the date and time of the meeting to finalize the registration books.
G. Not less than thirty days nor more than forty-five days before the date of the election, the board of trustees shall publish in Spanish and English the proclamation in a local newspaper of general circulation available within the boundaries of the land grant-merced and post the proclamation in at least five public places within the land grant-merced.
H. The board of trustees shall appoint one election judge and at least two election clerks for each polling place. The election judge shall also be present for the canvass of the vote. No person shall be qualified for appointment or service as an election clerk or judge, or as a member of a canvassing board, who is a spouse, parent, child or sibling of any candidate to be voted for at the election.
I. The board of trustees shall provide in the bylaws for the forms and procedures by which the land grant-merced elections are conducted. If the board of trustees chooses to provide for early or absentee voting, it shall specify in its bylaws the procedures by which early or absentee voting shall be conducted.
History: Laws 1907, ch. 42, § 5; Code 1915, § 803; C.S. 1929, § 29-105; Laws 1933, ch. 164, § 2; 1937, ch. 194, § 1; 1941 Comp., § 9-105; Laws 1951, ch. 223, § 1; 1953 Comp., § 8-1-5; Laws 1979, ch. 184, § 2; 2004, ch. 124, § 7; 2009, ch. 131, § 1; 2019, ch. 248, § 4.
ANNOTATIONSThe 2019 amendment, effective June 14, 2019, provided a timeline for the board of trustees to finalize the registration books of qualified voting members, required the board of trustees to specify by proclamation the date and time of the meeting to finalize the registration books, and prohibited any person to serve as a member of a canvassing board who is a spouse, parent, child or sibling of any candidate to be voted for at the election; in the section heading, added "provisional ballots"; in Subsection C, added the last sentence; in Subsection F, added Paragraph F(8); and in Subsection H, after "clerk or judge", added "or as a member of a canvassing board", and after "child", deleted "brother or sister" and added "or sibling".
The 2009 amendment, effective June 19, 2009, in Subsection C, after "prescribed in the", deleted the remainder of the sentence which provided for substitution of terms used in the Election Code to make it applicable to the land grant and added the remainder of the first sentence and the second sentence; deleted former Subsection E, which provided for public notice of the election; deleted former Subsection F, which provided the procedure for conducting elections; and added Subsections E through I.
The 2004 amendment, effective July 1, 2004, deleted most of Subsection A and added in its place: "or on a day designated in the bylaws, either every two or every four years as specified in the bylaws of the land grant-merced", redesignated the last two sentences of former Subsection A as Subsection B and inserted at the beginning of the subsection: "All qualified voting members of the land grant-merced are qualified to vote", redesignated former Subsections B and C as Subsections C and D, deleted former Subsection D and added new Subsections E and F.
The 1979 amendment added the catchline, deleted "of members" following "of members" near the beginning of Subsection A, inserted "by inheritance or by purchase of an interest in the common lands" near the middle of the first sentence in Subsection A, substituted "the Election Code" for "Chapter 41, Laws of 1927 (56-203 - 56-245)" in Subsection B and made other minor changes.
Lack of standing in quiet title suit. — Where a land grant association's board of trustees had not called an election by its members or the trustees as required by law and had not identified the persons having an interest in the lands claimed by the association who had a right to vote at an election and the treasurer had not furnished a surety bond, the association lacked standing as a land grant community or board to assert a claim of title to lands at issue in a suit to quiet title. Cordova v. Broadbent, 1988-NMSC-042, 107 N.M. 215, 755 P.2d 59.