A. A district board shall be composed of five or seven members elected for four-year terms who shall reside in and be elected from single-member districts as provided in this section. If the board is a seven-member board, board members shall be elected for all seven positions on the board, with the board members elected to positions 1, 3, 5 and 7 to be elected for initial terms of two years and the board members elected to positions 2, 4 and 6 to be elected for initial terms of four years. If the board is a five-member board, board members elected to positions 1, 3 and 5 shall be elected for initial terms of two years and board members elected to positions 2 and 4 shall be elected for initial terms of four years. After the initial election for a district board, each board member shall be elected for a term of four years.

B. All election proceedings for technical and vocational institute district elections shall be conducted pursuant to the provisions of the Local Election Act [Chapter 1, Article 22 NMSA 1978].

C. Once following each federal decennial census, the board shall redistrict the technical and vocational institute district into election districts to ensure that the districts remain as equal in population as is practicable and shall notify the county clerk of the new boundaries upon completion of the redistricting process. The new districts shall go into effect at the first regular board election thereafter. Candidates for the new single-member districts that are scheduled to be voted on at the election shall reside in and be elected from the appropriate new single-member district. Incumbent board members whose districts before redistricting were not scheduled to be voted on at the election need not reside in the new single-member districts corresponding to their position numbers and may serve out their terms. At the second regular board election held after the redistricting, all candidates for the new single-member districts that are scheduled to be voted on shall reside in and be elected from the appropriate single-member district.

D. All election districts covered by this section shall be contiguous, compact and as equal in population as is practicable.

E. A vacancy occurring on the board shall be filled in the same manner as provided for school board vacancies in Section 22-5-9 NMSA 1978; provided, however, that a vacancy that occurs in an election district where a nonresident board member had been serving shall be filled by a resident of that district.

History: Laws 1994, ch. 83, § 3; 1999, ch. 219, § 12; 2000, ch. 11, § 1; 2018, ch. 79, § 84.

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, provided that all election proceedings for technical and vocational institute district elections shall be conducted pursuant to the provisions of the Local Election Act, required the board to notify the county clerk of new boundaries after redistricting following each federal decennial census, and made technical and conforming changes; in Subsection A, deleted "Any board, the members of which have not been elected from single-member districts, shall district and hold a special election to coincide with the school district elections of 2001"; in Subsection B, deleted "Except where specific provision is otherwise provided by law", and after "pursuant to the provisions of the", deleted "School Election Law with the president of the institute serving in the place of the superintendent of schools in every case" and added "Local Election Act"; and in Subsection C, after "as is practicable", added "and shall notify the county clerk of the new boundaries upon completion of the redistricting process".

Temporary provisions. — Laws 2018, ch. 79, § 174 provided that references in law to the Municipal Election Code and to the School Election Law shall be deemed to be references to the Local Election Act.

The 2000 amendment, effective May 17, 2000, in the second sentence of Subsection A, deleted "On July 1, 1999" from the beginning and substituted "to coincide with the school district elections of 2001" for "within one year from the effective date of this 1999 act" at the end.

The 1999 amendment, effective July 1, 1999, rewrote Subsection A; added present Subsection B and redesignated the subsequent subsections accordingly; deleted specification of seven election districts in the first sentence in Subsection C; and added the language at the beginning of Subsection E preceding the proviso.