On September 2, two months before the November 4 municipal election where voters will be voting on the offices of Mayor and City Council in Districts 1,3,5,7 and 9, two separate lawsuits were filed by third parties against two candidates for Albuquerque City Council with the goal of having them kick off the ballot for their failure to submit the required 500 qualifying nominating petition signatures. One lawsuit was filed against Stephanie Telles in City Council District 1. The second lawsuit was against Teresa Garcia in City Council District 3.
In addition to Telles and Garcia, Bernalillo County Clerk Michelle Kavanaugh was named as a defendant in both cases. City Clerk Ethan Watson was not named as a necessary and proper party defendant but the City intervened in the case for the purposes of an emergency hearing. Both lawsuits were filed by private attorney and former State Senator Jacob Candelaria and Senator Antonio “Moe” Maestas with the Candelaria Law firm LLC in the 2nd Judicial District Court on behalf of two Plaintiff registered voters who live in District 1 and one Plaintiff registered voter who lives in District 3.
Both lawsuits are straight forward challenges to the validity of the signatures collected and contend that several of the signatures accepted by the City Clerk’s Office were invalid for a variety of reasons, including being collected after the city deadline. Other reasons included being incomplete, duplicative signatures, signatures from people who are not registered to vote in the district. A person identified in the lawsuits as Nathaniel Sierra, a private investigator contracted by Candelaria Law firm, allegedly examined the petition signatures to determine validity.
EXPEDITED HEARING
The lawsuit filed against Stephanie Telles alleged she failed to qualify in a four-way race for the open District 1 city council seat where City Councilor Louie Sanchez is vacating the post to run for mayor. The four candidates running are Ahren Griego, Daniel Leiva, Joshua Taylor Neal and Stephanie Telles. Candidates Ahren Griego, Daniel Leiva, Joshua Taylor Neal were found by the City Clerk to have submitted the required 500 qualifying signatures.
The lawsuit filed alleges Telles submitted 581 signatures, but the City Clerk’s Office accepted only 493 as valid, leaving Telles 7 signatures short to qualify for the ballot. Telles appealed her disqualification to the City Clerk, but the city clerk denied her appeal.
Notwithstanding the Albuquerque City Clerk’s finding that Telles failed to submit the required number of verified petition signatures, Stephanie Telles filed her Declaration of Candidacy with the Bernalillo County Clerk. On August 28, 2025, Bernalillo County Clerk Michelle S. Kavenaugh notified Stephanie Telles by letter that the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office qualified her Declaration of Candidacy.
On September 12, Second Judicial District Court Josh Allison scheduled expedited emergency hearings on both cases that had been assigned to him. Testimony was taken in the Telles case on the validity and challenges to individual petition signatures. The deciding issue centered on whether nominating petition signatures are valid if they are collected after the city’s July 7 deadline but prior to an August 26 deadline set by the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office. David Ring, the attorney for Stephanie Telles argued in a Motion to Dismiss the case that state election law gives candidates 70 days, until August 26, to submit nominating petition signatures. Ring alleged this in the motion:
“[The city’s July 7 deadline] amounts to an unlawful attempt to abridge state law. It limits the right of voters to participate in the candidate nomination process and of candidates to run for office.”
Judge Allison dismissed the suit against Telles after finding that signatures she submitted after the city’s July 7 were valid under state election laws. David Ring, Telles’ attorney said this:
“Ms. Telles made it by three signatures — she got 503.”
Following Allison’s ruling in the Telles case, Candelaria and Maestas voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit against Garcia, who also submitted signatures collected after the July 7 city deadline. The lawsuit alleged Teresa Garcia turned in six-hundred and ninety nine (699) signatures to the City Clerk but the City Clerk identified and rejected one-hundred, sixty-nine (169) signatures as invalid. Of the five-hundred thirty (530) signatures accepted as valid by the city clerk, the complaint alleges Teresa Garcia had collected signatures after the city’s July 7 deadline to collect signatures and in the weeks leading up the August 26 declaration filing date, well over the legal deadline allowed by the city.
At the conclusion of the September 12 the hearing District Court Judge Allison ruled in favor of both Telles and Garcia and ordered that they both remain on the ballot. Candelaria said he had planned to appeal the ruling to the New Mexico Supreme Court but said this:
“The ballot has to be sent to the printer today. … As a practical matter, any appeal to the Supreme Court will not result in these candidates being removed from the ballot.”
The link to the quoted or relied upon news source is here:
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The Local Election Act (LEA) was passed by the New Mexico Legislature in 2018. It allows for consolidated local elections in nonpartisan municipal elections to be conducted every November of the odd-numbers years with the county clerk to administer the elections. The city’s November 4 election for Mayor and City Council will be conducted and administered by the Bernalillo County Clerk. For that reason, all candidates for City Council were required to file Declarations of Candidacies with the Bernalillo County Clerk as well as 500 verified petition signatures collected on August 26, 2025.
The link to the City Charter and Local Elections act is here:
https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/albuquerque/latest/albuqcharter/0-0-0-131
https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-1/article-22/section-1-22-3/
A “Declaration for Candidacy” for Albuquerque City Council along with the requisite signatures on nominating petitions were required to be filed with the Bernalillo County Clerk on August 26, 2025, and not the City Clerk, between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. (City Election Code § 1-22-7(A))
https://www.City.gov/vote/candidate-information/candidate-calendar-for-the-2025-regular-local-election
The biggest problem identified with both challenges to the candidacies of Stephanie Telles and Teresa Garcia is that there is no clarity under the law and no memo of understanding agreed to between the City Clerk and the Bernalillo County Clerk as to who has the ultimate authority between the Albuquerque City Clerk and the Bernalillo County Clerk to decide the validity nominating signatures submitted nor the time frame to collect signatures.
Article 2, Section 4, of the City of Albuquerque Charter dealing with Elections outlines the qualifications to run for Albuquerque City Council and states in part:
“Persons desiring to become candidates for District Councilor shall, before being placed on the ballot, file with the City Clerk a petition containing signatures of five hundred (500) registered voters residing in the district which the person desires to represent.”
It is clear that all candidates for City Council are required to gather 500 verified nominating petition signatures from registered voters within the city council district the candidate wishes to represent. The problem was the City Clerk decreed that nominating petition collection period was from June 2, 2025, at 8:00am to July 7, 2025, at 5:00pm ignoring state law that the Declarations of Candidacies and submission of signatures to the County Clerk was to occur on August 26 giving candidates more time to collect nominating petition signatures.
Under New Mexico State Law, “A signature shall be counted on a nominating petition unless there is evidence presented that the petition is not a voter of the state, district, county or area to be represented by the office for which the person seeking the nomination is a candidate.” Further, “A signature shall be counted on a nominating petition unless there is evidence presented that the petition signature has signed more than one petition for the same office.” [§ 1-1-7.2(C)(1) NMSA], § 1-1-7.2(C)(2) NMSA]
Ultimately, State District Court Judge Allison was forced to decide that the County Clerk has the ultimate authority to decide who makes the ballot, the verification of nominating petition signatures and that State Law supersedes City election laws.
Notwithstanding, the City Clerk’s failure to initiate an action against the County Clerk to prevent Stephanie Telles and Teresa Garcia being placed on the ballot in order to enforce the City’s own election laws was a dereliction of duty on the City Clerk’s part.