The governing body of any municipality may fix a date for an election and may order the submission at the election of a question or proposal to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds or the incurrence of any other indebtedness for any project or part thereof authorized by the Joint City-County Building Law subject to the limitations of Section 5-5-9 NMSA 1978; and notice of the election shall be given by publication, commencing at least twenty days prior to the election. The notice of election shall be signed by the clerk of the municipality and by the chairman of the board, mayor of the city or other titular head of the municipality; and the notice shall contain:

A. the time and place or places of holding the election;

B. the hours during the day in which the polls will be open, which shall be the same as then provided for general elections;

C. the purpose of the proposal for issuing bonds or otherwise incurring an indebtedness;

D. the maximum amount of bonds and the maximum rate of interest, not to exceed six per centum per annum, in the case of any bond proposal; and

E. the maximum number of years, not exceeding thirty, from the date of the bonds or other evidence of indebtedness, during which the bond shall mature or the indebtedness shall be defrayed.

The statement as to the place or places of holding the election may merely refer generally to the place or places theretofore designated for holding the general, regular municipal or other election with which the bond or other debt election may be consolidated, or refer generally to the place or places for holding a previous election, or may consist of some other similarly sufficient statement designating such place or places by reference thereto or a general description thereof.

A special registration shall be held for any qualified elector not registered for any such debt election which is not consolidated with nor held within the sixty days next succeeding an election for which a registration was held. In such event, the special registration shall be held for a ten-day period commencing the twenty-ninth day next preceding the election and ending the twentieth day next prior thereto. The county clerk or other official required by law to conduct registrations for the municipality, upon being given timely notice of the election by the governing body, shall give notice of the special registration by publication, commencing at least thirty-two days next prior to the election, and stating the place and the days and hours the special registration will be held.

Except for notices of elections, except for the necessity of and the time of holding registrations for elections and except for any provisions inconsistent with any provision in the Joint City-County Building Law specifically made or necessarily implied, any debt election for any project shall be held, conducted, canvassed and otherwise governed as nearly as practicable as then provided for a regular municipal election in the case of any city election and as then provided for a general election in the case of a county election.

History: 1953 Comp., § 6-9-10, enacted by Laws 1959, ch. 300, § 10; 1977, ch. 28, § 3.