N.M. Stat. § 1-25-3 (2026)

   A. An elected official of the following local jurisdictions is subject to recall pursuant to the
provisions of the Recall Act:

      (1)     a school district, pursuant to Article 12, Section 14 of the constitution of New
Mexico;

       (2)    a county, pursuant to Article 10, Section 9 of the constitution of New Mexico;

       (3)    a commission-manager municipality, pursuant to Section 3-14-16 NMSA 1978;
and

        (4)    a home rule municipality, if the charter of the home rule municipality provides for
recall of elective officers and notwithstanding any election provisions or procedures in the laws
of the municipality that may conflict with the Recall Act; provided that if the recall procedures of
a home rule municipality provide greater due process than the Recall Act, the recall procedures
of the home rule municipality shall be utilized in place of the due process procedures of the
Recall Act.

   B. Recall of elected officials of the local jurisdictions listed in Subsection A of this section is
subject to the following limitations:

       (1)    the cited grounds for recall shall be based upon acts or failures to act constituting
malfeasance in office, misfeasance in office or violation of oath of office occurring during the
current term of the named official sought to be recalled;

      (2)    no petition for recall of a named official shall be submitted more than once during
the same term of office to which the official is elected; and

       (3)    an election to recall a named official shall not be conducted:

           (a) later than one hundred eighty days from the end of the term for the office for which
the recall of a named official is sought, in the case of any office subject to recall; and

           (b) after May 1 in the calendar year in which an election is to be held for the office for
which the recall of a named official is sought, in the case of a county official who is a candidate
for reelection.

History: 1953 Comp., § 77-4A-4, enacted by Laws 1977, ch. 308, § 4; 1978 Comp., §22-7-4,
recompiled and amended as § 1-25-3 by Laws 2019, ch. 212, § 161.

                                          ANNOTATIONS

Recompilations. — Laws 2019, ch. 212, § 161 recompiled and amended former 22-7-4 NMSA
1978 as 1-25-3 NMSA 1978, effective April 3, 2019.

The 2019 amendment, effective April 3, 2019, completely rewrote the section; in the section
heading, deleted "Members" and added "Recall; elected officials" and added "limitations";
deleted "Any elected member of the local school board of any school district may be recalled as
provided in the Local School Board Member Recall Act" and added Subsections A and B.
1-25-4. Recall; petition.
    A. The recall petition shall be composed of a face sheet and a subsequent page. An
individual, group or organization desiring to initiate the recall process may obtain the forms from
the district court.

      B. The petition shall be on eight and one-half inch by eleven inch paper.

   C. All information written on the petition form shall be in compliance with the federal Voting
Rights Act of 1965, as amended.

      D. Each face sheet of a petition shall contain the following:

         (1)    a space for the initiation date;

       (2)   a notice at the top of the sheet stating: "Recall is a local decision to be funded by
local money. State funds will not be advanced to support recall.";

         (3)    a space for the name of the named official;

       (4)      a space for the name of the local jurisdiction in which the named official has been
elected;

         (5)    a space for the name of the individual, group or organization initiating the petition;

       (6)     a space in which to list the specific charges to support recall of the named official
that constitute malfeasance in office, misfeasance in office or violation of oath of office; and

         (7)   a notice stating "Signatures are valid for a maximum of ninety days from the
initiation date.".

      E. The remaining portion of the face sheet shall be substantially in the following form:

    "I, the undersigned, a registered voter and a resident of the ______________ (name of local
jurisdiction), hereby petition for the recall of the named official on the face sheet of this petition.

 1.     ______________        ______________       ______________       _________       _________
        Usual Signature       Name Printed         Address As           City or         Date
                              As Registered        Registered           Zip Code        Signed
 2.     ______________        ______________       ______________       _________       _________
        Usual Signature       Name Printed         Address As           City or         Date
                              As Registered        Registered           Zip Code        Signed".

   F. One completed face sheet or duplicate thereof shall be the first page of all circulated
petitions.

   G. Each subsequent page shall describe the purpose of the petition, provide the name of the
named official sought to be recalled and indicate that additional details are contained on the
face sheet and be substantially in the form provided in this section.
History: 1953 Comp., § 77-4A-6, enacted by Laws 1977, ch. 308, § 6; 1993, ch. 226, § 17;
1978 Comp., § 22-7-6, recompiled and amended as § 1-25-4 by Laws 2019, ch. 212, § 162.

                                         ANNOTATIONS

Recompilations. — Laws 2019, ch. 212, § 162 recompiled and amended former 22-7-6 NMSA
1978 as 1-25-4 NMSA 1978, effective April 3, 2019.

The 2019 amendment, effective April 3, 2019, revised the form of a recall petition; in the
section heading, added "Recall"; deleted former Subsection A and added a new Subsection A;
in Subsection B, after "by", deleted "fourteen" and added "eleven"; in Subsection D, added new
Paragraph D(4) and redesignated former Paragraphs D(4) through D(6) as Paragraphs D(5)
through D(7), respectively, in Paragraph D(7), after "maximum of", deleted "one hundred ten"
and added "ninety", and after "days from", deleted "date of initiation" and added "initiation date";
in Subsection E, after "registered voter", deleted "in the county of _______, New Mexico", and
after "resident of the", deleted "school district" and added "name of local jurisdiction"; and in
Subsection G, after "subsequent page", deleted "of the petition shall have approximately twenty-
five lines numbered one to twenty-five" and added "shall describe the purpose of the petition,
provide the name of the named official sought to be recalled and indicate that additional details
are contained on the face sheet", after the next occurrence of "and", deleted "shall", and after
"provided in", deleted "Subsection E of".

The 1993 amendment, effective July 1, 1993, substituted "this section" for "section 6 of the
Local School Board Member Recall Act" at the end of Subsection G and made stylistic changes.

Protections when exercising the right to petition. — Where respondent, a Taos school
board member, brought a malicious abuse of process claim against petitioners, eighteen
members of an unincorporated citizens’ association who sought to remove respondent from
office, the district court properly granted petitioners’ motion to dismiss, because petitioners who
pursue the recall of a local school board member under the Local School Board Member Recall
Act, 22-7-1 to 22-7-16 NMSA 1978, are entitled to the procedural protections of the New Mexico
statute prohibiting strategic litigations against public participation (Anti-SLAPP statute, 38-2-9.1
NMSA 1978), and are entitled to immunity under the Noerr-Pennington doctrine when they
exercise their first amendment right to petition. Cordova v. Cline, 2017-NMSC-020, rev’g 2013-
NMCA-083, 308 P.3d 975.

Standing to file recall petition. — Where defendants formed an unincorporated organization to
file a petition to recall plaintiff who was a member and officer of a municipal school board; the
organization registered with the county clerk pursuant to Section 53-10-1 NMSA 1978; and
defendants were residents and voters of the county in which the school district was located, the
organization had standing to file a recall petition. Cordova v. Cline, 2013-NMCA-083, cert.
granted, 2013-NMCERT-007.

District court's finding of probable cause to support an allegation of malfeasance
sufficient for a recall petition to proceed was error. — Where petitioner filed a petition to
hold a recall election for a Rio Arriba county commissioner, alleging the commissioner
committed malfeasance in office by violating the Open Meetings Act, specifically alleging that
the commissioner made a public policy decision outside of a public meeting of the Rio Arriba
county commission to install a statue depicting Don Juan de Oñate, the district court erred when
it found probable cause that the commissioner committed malfeasance or misfeasance without
also finding that the decision to install the statue was made by a quorum of the county
commission, a requirement to prove a violation of the Open Meetings Act. Pena v. Rio Arriba
Cnty. Comm'r, 2025-NMSC-045.