Albuquerque keeps runoff elections after City Council rejects ranked-choice voting proposal
Albuquerque NM – City Council voted down ranked-choice voting on April 6, keeping the city’s runoff system in place for future mayoral and council races.
Albuquerque City Council voted down a proposal to adopt ranked-choice voting on April 6, leaving the city’s current runoff-election system in place for mayoral and City Council races.
The measure failed on a reported 6-3 vote after a lengthy meeting and heavy public comment, according to local coverage by KOB and KOAT. The ordinance on the council’s final action agenda would have replaced Albuquerque’s current system with ranked-choice voting and directed the City Clerk to prepare voter education materials.
The practical bottom line for residents is straightforward: Albuquerque still requires a majority winner in these city races. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent in the first round, the city can still be pushed into a separate runoff election later.
Why this matters in Albuquerque
This is not an abstract debate for local voters. Albuquerque just went through the runoff process in late 2025.
A City Clerk notice issued after the November 4, 2025 election said voters had to return for a December 9 runoff in the mayor’s race and in City Council Districts 1 and 3 because no candidate in those contests cleared the City Charter’s majority threshold. The city described the runoff as a second election between the top two finishers to ensure a majority winner.
The city’s 2025 runoff calendar also shows what that extra election cycle means in practice: additional campaign finance deadlines, absentee-ballot timing, early-voting dates, and another trip to the polls for affected voters. For residents, campaigns, and election administrators, the failed April 6 proposal means that same basic structure remains in place for the next crowded municipal race that does not produce a majority winner on the first ballot.
The argument on both sides
Supporters argued ranked-choice voting could help Albuquerque avoid the cost and scheduling burden of separate runoff elections. Their case was especially easy to make just months after the city had to run another round of voting for mayor and two council seats.
Opponents argued the change would make voting more complicated and could create confusion for people who are used to choosing one candidate. That concern carried enough weight on the council to stop the ordinance this time.
The debate stayed focused on a practical question residents can understand: is it better to keep a familiar two-election system that guarantees a majority winner, or switch to a single election format that asks voters to rank candidates?
What happens next
For now, nothing changes in Albuquerque’s election rules beyond this proposal failing. The city keeps its current majority-win system, and future mayoral or City Council races can still trigger a runoff when no one tops 50 percent in the first round.
What residents should watch next is whether council sponsors or other backers bring another election-system proposal back in a future session. But as of April 8, Albuquerque’s recent runoff experience is still the model the city will use.
