Albuquerque city council

ABQ City Council votes to send cannabis decriminalization to Keller’s desk

By |

The City of Albuquerque is one step closer to reducing the penalties for the possession of small amounts of cannabis. City councilors voted 5-4 Monday night to replace the current ordinance that allows for possible jail time for cannabis possession with a $25 fine. Now it’s up to Mayor Tim Keller to make it official. Under current city law, possession of an ounce or less of cannabis could result in a $50 fine and up to 15 days in jail for a first offense and a possible $500 fine and up to 90 days in jail for repeat offenses.Councilor Cynthia Borrego was the only Democrat to vote against the proposal. She explained that there is “not really any empirical evidence” showing a correlation between decreased penalties and reduced crime rates.

Elections

Voter turnout in ABQ runoff nearly matched first round of voting

By |

Nearly as many people voted in the Albuquerque runoff election Tim Keller won on Tuesday as voted  in October’s eight-way election, according to unofficial numbers from the Bernalillo County Clerk’s office. According to the city’s unofficial numbers, 96,813 voters cast ballots in the  runoff between Keller and Dan Lewis—a 28.7 percent turnout among registered voters. That’s close to the 97,000 who cast ballots in the first round of voting on Oct. 3, a 28.8 participation rate among registered voters. UNM professor of political science Lonna Atkeson said she was surprised by the high turnout and cited Keller’s “incredible ground game.”

“His volunteer base was huge and he was getting volunteers to get other volunteers,” she said.

liveblog

Albuquerque mayoral runoff election liveblog

By |

UPDATE: Our liveblog is done for the night. The archive remains below, and you can read our story on Tim Keller’s victory. We’re back again tonight with another liveblog on election night. This time, it’s a very short ballot—for most voters in Albuquerque, just one question: Tim Keller or Dan Lewis for Albuquerque mayor. We will stick around until the bitter end tonight.

2017 Albuquerque City Council election

Deadline nears for ABQ city council candidates seeking public financing

By |

Potential candidates for Albuquerque City Council who aim to run using public funds are up against their first deadline later today. To qualify for the public financing, the city requires candidates to collect a certain number of $5 contributions, depending on how many people are registered to vote in the district. So far, about 60 percent of city council candidates are seeking public financing. Only one mayoral candidate qualified for public financing. Coming into the final day to collect the qualifying donations, about half of the city council hopefuls attempting to qualify for public financing are on track.