New Mexico Constitutional Amendment 3, Judicial Nominating Commission Amendment (2024)

New Mexico Constitutional Amendment 3
Election date November 5, 2024
Topic State judiciary
Status a Approved
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

New Mexico Constitutional Amendment 3, the Judicial Nominating Commission Amendment, was on the ballot in New Mexico as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 5, 2024. The ballot measure was approved.

A "yes" vote supported authorizing a designee of the dean of the University of New Mexico Law School to serve as chair of the judicial nomination commission and requiring the designee to be an associate dean, a faculty member, a retired faculty member, or a former dean of the law school.

A "no" vote opposed authorizing a designee of the dean of the University of New Mexico Law School to serve as chair of the judicial nomination commission and requiring the designee to be an associate dean, a faculty member, a retired faculty member, or a former dean of the law school.

Election results

New Mexico Constitutional Amendment 3
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		412,465	51.41%
No		389,871	48.59%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Overview

What did Constitutional Amendment 3 do?

See also: Text of measure

Constitutional Amendment 3 was designed to allow the dean of the University of New Mexico Law School to designate an individual to serve as chair for the appellate judges nominating commission. The amendment stipulated that the designee must be an associate dean, a faculty member, a retired faculty member, or a former dean of the law school.

What is the appellate judges nominating commission?

See also: Appellate judges nominating commission

Section 35 details the makeup of the appellate judges nominating commission. It provides that the commission shall achieve partisan political parity. Under Section 35, the appellate judges nominating commission would consist of:

• the chief justice of the Supreme Court or a designee appointed by the chief justice.
• two New Mexico Court of Appeals judges appointed by the Court of Appeals chief judge.
• three attorneys, one each nominated by the governor, the speaker of the state House, and the state Senate president pro tempore.
• three non-attorneys, one each nominated by the governor, the speaker of the state House, and the state Senate president pro tempore.
• the dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law. The dean serves as the commission chair and only casts tie-breaking votes.
• four attorneys appointed by the president of the New Mexico Bar and the commission judges.

How did Constitutional Amendment 3 get on the ballot?

See also: Path to the ballot

This amendment was introduced as Senate Joint Resolution 1 on January 18, 2024. On February 1, 2024, the state Senate passed SJR 1 in a vote of 27-10. The state House passed the amendment on February 14 by a vote of 55-6 with nine excused or absent. All voting Democrats voted in favor of the amendment, and 19 of the 35 voting Republicans voted in favor of it.

Text of measure

Ballot question

The ballot question for Constitutional Amendment 3 was as follows:

“

Proposing to amend Article 6, section 35 of the Constitution of New Mexico by allowing the dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law to appoint a designee to the Judicial Nominating Commission.

”

Constitutional changes

See also: Article VI, New Mexico Constitution

The measure amended section 35 of Article VI of the state constitution. The following underlined text was added, and struck-through text was deleted:

Section 35

There is created the "appellate judges nominating commission", consisting of: the chief justice of the supreme court or the chief justice's designee from the supreme court; two judges of the court of appeals appointed by the chief judge of the court of appeals; the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives and the president pro tempore of the senate shall each appoint two persons, one of whom shall be an attorney licensed to practice law in this state and the other who shall be a citizen who is not licensed to practice law in any state; the dean of the university of New Mexico school of law who or the dean's designee, who shall be an associate dean, a faculty member, a retired faculty member or a former dean of the university of New Mexico school of law; the dean or the dean's designee shall serve as chair of the commission and shall vote only in the event of a tie vote; and four members of the state bar of New Mexico, representing civil and criminal prosecution and defense, appointed by the president of the state bar and the judges on the commission.

Readability score

See also: Ballot measure readability scores, 2024

Using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) formulas, Ballotpedia scored the readability of the ballot title for this measure. Readability scores are designed to indicate the reading difficulty of text. The Flesch-Kincaid formulas account for the number of words, syllables, and sentences in a text; they do not account for the difficulty of the ideas in the text. The state legislature wrote the ballot language for this measure.

The FKGL for the ballot title is grade level 19, and the FRE is 14. The word count for the ballot title is 33.

Support

Ballotpedia did not locate a campaign in support of the ballot measure.

Arguments

• UNM School of Law Dean Camille Carey: "This change would significantly enhance our ability to contribute effectively to the judicial selection process while managing the diverse responsibilities of leading the state's only law school. Our participation in the Commission ensures that we maintain a strong connection between legal education and the practical needs of our state's judiciary. The proposed amendment would allow us to maintain this important link while providing the flexibility needed to address the demanding schedule of law school leadership."

Opposition

Ballotpedia did not locate a campaign in opposition to the ballot measure.

Campaign finance

The campaign finance information on this page reflects the most recent scheduled reports that Ballotpedia has processed, which covered through April 1, 2024. The deadline for the next scheduled reports was September 9, 2024.

See also: Campaign finance requirements for New Mexico ballot measures

Ballotpedia has not identified any committees registered in support of or opposition to the amendment. If you are aware of any committees, please send a link to editor@ballotpedia.org.

	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Support	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Oppose	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

Background

Section 35, Article VI, New Mexico Constitution

See also: Section 35, Article VI, New Mexico Constitution

Section 35 of Article VI of the New Mexico Constitution was added with the approval of Amendment 6 on November 8, 1988, by a vote of 55.99% to 44.01%. The amendment added sections 33-38 and amended several other sections in Article VI that related to retention elections and appointed judges' nominating commissions.

Section 35 was amended in 2022 with the approval of Amendment 3 by a vote of 68.79% to 31.21%. The amendment provided that an appointed judge shall be up for election at the first general election one year after being appointed.

Appellate judges nominating commission

As of 2024, there were 15 separate judicial nominating commissions that screen applicants for the appellate, district, and metropolitan courts in New Mexico. The commissions were created by Article IV, Sections 35, 36, and 37, of the New Mexico Constitution.

Section 35 details the makeup of the appellate judges nominating commission. It provides that the commission shall achieve partisan political parity. Under Section 35, the appellate judges nominating commission would consist of:

• the chief justice of the Supreme Court or a designee appointed by the chief justice.
• two New Mexico Court of Appeals judges appointed by the Court of Appeals chief judge.
• three attorneys, one each nominated by the governor, the speaker of the state House, and the state Senate president pro tempore.
• three non-attorneys, one each nominated by the governor, the speaker of the state House, and the state Senate president pro tempore.
• the dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law. The dean serves as the commission chair and only casts tie-breaking votes.
• four attorneys appointed by the president of the New Mexico Bar and the commission judges.

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the New Mexico Constitution

A simple majority vote is required during one legislative session for the New Mexico State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 36 votes in the New Mexico House of Representatives and 22 votes in the New Mexico State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

This amendment was introduced as Senate Joint Resolution 1 on January 18, 2024. On February 1, 2024, the state Senate passed SJR 1 in a vote of 27-10. The state House passed the amendment on February 14 by a vote of 55-6 with nine excused or absent.

Vote in the New Mexico State Senate February 1, 2024
Requirement: Simple majority of all members in each chamber
Number of yes votes required: 22  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	27	10	5
Total percent	64.29%	23.91%	11.90%
Democrat	25	0	2
Republican	2	10	3

Vote in the New Mexico House of Representatives February 14, 2024
Requirement: Simple majority of all members in each chamber
Number of yes votes required: 36  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	55	6	9
Total percent	78.57%	8.57%	12.86%
Democrat	38	0	7
Republican	17	6	2

How to cast a vote

See also: Voting in New Mexico

See below to learn more about current voter registration rules, identification requirements, and poll times in New Mexico.

How to vote in New Mexico

Poll times

In New Mexico, all polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time on Election Day. An individual who is in line at the time polls close must be allowed to vote.

Registration

Check your voter registration status here.

To register to vote in New Mexico, each applicant must be a citizen of the United States, a resident of New Mexico, and at least 18 years old by the time of the next election. People convicted of a felony are eligible to vote after their prison time is completed, even if they are still on probation, parole, or another form of supervised release. Individuals who have been declared mentally incapacitated may not register to vote.

Potential New Mexico voters who were not registered automatically may use the New Mexico voter registration form, the national voter registration form, or the state's online voter registration portal to register. Completed registration materials may be mailed or delivered by hand to election officials. To register online, an applicant must have a state-issued ID. First-time applicants registering by mail must attach a valid form of identification to their registration materials, which includes a current and valid photo identification, or, a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, student identification card or other government document, including tribal IDs that show the voter's name and current address.

Automatic registration

See also: Automatic voter registration

New Mexico has automatic voter registration. Eligible voters are automatically registered to vote when they interact with a department of motor vehicles unless they opt out.

Online registration

See also: Online voter registration

New Mexico has implemented an online voter registration system. Residents can register to vote by visiting this website.

Same-day registration

See also: Same-day voter registration

New Mexico allows same-day voter registration.

Residency requirements

In New Mexico, individuals can register to vote as soon as they become residents of the state.

Verification of citizenship

See also: Laws permitting noncitizens to vote in the United States

New Mexico does not require proof of citizenship for voter registration. An individual must attest that they are a U.S. citizen when registering to vote.

All 49 states with voter registration systems require applicants to declare that they are U.S. citizens in order to register to vote in state and federal elections, under penalty of perjury or other punishment. Seven states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Wyoming — have laws requiring verification of citizenship at the time of voter registration, whether in effect or not. In three states — California, Maryland, and Vermont — at least one local jurisdiction allows noncitizens to vote in some local elections. Noncitizens registering to vote in those elections must complete a voter registration application provided by the local jurisdiction and are not eligible to register as state or federal voters.

Verifying your registration

The New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office allows residents to check their voter registration status online by visiting this website.

Voter ID requirements

New Mexico does not require voters to present identification while voting, in most cases. However, if an individual registered to vote for the first time by mail and did not provide verification of his or her identity then, the voter will have to show identification.

Those voters can present the following forms of identification:

• Current and valid photo identification
• Current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, student identification card, or other government document, including identification issued by an Indian nation, tribe, or pueblo that shows the voter’s name and current address

Some municipalities require identification when voting in local elections. Click here for more information.

See also

2024 measures

• 2024 ballot measures
• State judiciary on the ballot

New Mexico

• New Mexico ballot measures
• New Mexico ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Full text