Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Clerk had feared impact on hospital tax vote
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Sept. 12 unanimously rejected a late-season bid by the secretary of state to reimpose straight-party voting.
Bottom line: Straight-party voting won’t appear on the November general-election ballot in Quay County and the rest of New Mexico.
Quay County Clerk Ellen White said during the county commission’s regular meeting Sept. 10 the return of straight-party voting would be “detrimental” to passage of the county’s hospital gross-receipts tax-renewal question on the Nov. 6 ballot.
White said she feared straight-ticket voters would ignore or overlook the hospital-tax question and endanger its passage.
The current one-eighth percent tax raises about $200,000 a year to help operate Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari. Quay County commissioners in late August voted to put the tax-renewal measure on the ballot.
The tax first was approved during a special election in 1987. A new state law requires the consolidation of most local elections into general elections, so the hospital tax must be decided again amid other general-election races in November.
Hospital Chief Executive Dick Smith said if county voters reject the tax renewal, it would have repercussions on the hospital, which is operated by Albuquerque-based Presbyterian Health Services, including service cuts or layoffs.
After an hour of deliberations Sept. 12, the state’s high court ruled the secretary of state did not have the authority to unilaterally make the policy change to bring back straight-party voting. The court said only the New Mexico Legislature can restore straight-party voting, which allows voters to cast a ballot for a major party’s entire slate of candidates by filling in an oval at the top of the ballot.
Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, announced in late August she was bringing back straight-ticket voting for the Nov. 6 election. She argued it provides more options to voters, and that state law gave her the authority to make the change.
White said the court expedited its ruling because many of the state’s county clerks are scheduled to send November ballots to the printer this week.