New Mexico Recount Laws

Close vote margin Candidate-initiated Voter-initiated Election official-initiated Audit-initiated New Mexico's statutes contain two distinct sections of law regarding recounts. Statutes for recounts for county, statewide, and federal offices can be found in Chapter 1, “Elections,” Article 14, “Contests and Recounts”: http://www.conwaygreene.com/nmsu/lpext.dll?f=FifLink&t=document-frame.ht.... There is a separate set of statutes for recounts in municipalities, contained in Chapter 3, “Municipalities,” Article 8, “Municipal Elections”: http://www.conwaygreene.com/nmsu/lpext.dll?f=FifLink&t=document-frame.ht.... Not all initiating mechanisms apply to all offices; the statutes for municipal elections allow for voter-initiated recounts, which are not allowed at the county or state level, and also have clear provisions for local election officials to initiate recounts. Election Official-Initiated Recounts: In its statutes pertaining to elections in municipalities, New Mexico allows for election officials who believe there to be any errors to conduct a recheck (as noted above, this is a retabulation, rather than a hand count). See Section 3-8-55, “Post-election duties; canvass; defective returns; correction” as well as Section 3-8-56, “Post-election duties; canvass; when recheck is required": http://www.conwaygreene.com/nmsu/lpext.dll?f=FifLink&t=document-frame.ht.... Timing: The district court must set a time for the recheck, which cannot be more than one week after the election officials send notice of the need for a recheck. See Section 3-8-56, Subsection (B). Audit-Initiated Recounts: A “voting system check” performed by an auditor is conducted for all federal offices, and for governor, as well as for that statewide office “for which the winning candidate won by the smallest percentage margin of all candidates for statewide office.” See Section 1-14-13.2, “Post-election duties; voting system check,” Subsection (A): http://www.conwaygreene.com/nmsu/lpext.dll?f=FifLink&t=document-frame.ht.... The audit process (set out in Section 1-14-13.2, Subsections (B) and (C)) involves a hand recount for a given number of precincts for each office. Based on a comparison of this hand count with the initial vote count, the auditor shall establish an error rate. If the hand count decreases the margin of victory, and if the error rate is more than 90% of that margin, an additional sample of ballots is audited. If, after this second-round audit, the error rate is still more than 90% of the margin of victory, a full recount of all ballots for that office must be conducted. See Section 1-14-13.2, Subsection (D). Timing: The audit process must begin no later than twelve days after the election. See Section 1-14-13.2, Subsection (B).