A. Each eligible metropolitan court judge shall be subject to retention or rejection at the general election in the last year of the four-year term of office for the position in which the judge is serving.
B. Terms of office for positions on each metropolitan court shall be staggered, as follows:
(1) the term of office for division 1 and for every second division number thereafter shall expire in 2024 and every four years thereafter; and
(2) the term of office for division 2 and for every second division number thereafter shall expire in 2022 and every four years thereafter.
C. The administrative office of the courts shall maintain current on its website a list of the names of the currently serving judges of the metropolitan court and the year in which the term of office for each position expires.
D. The initial term of office for a newly created metropolitan court judgeship shall be staggered in accordance with the provisions of Subsection B of this section, even if the result is a shortened first term for the office.
E. As used in this section, "division" means the divisions established pursuant to Subsection B of Section 34-8A-4 NMSA 1978.
History: Laws 2019, ch. 212, § 177; 2021, ch. 74, § 2.
The 2021 amendment, effective June 18, 2021, staggered the initial term of office for newly created metropolitan court judgeships, even if the result is a shortened first term; and added a new Subsection D and redesignated former Subsection D as Subsection E.
Temporary provisions. — Laws 2021, ch. 74, § 3, provided that pursuant to Article 20, Section 3 of the constitution of New Mexico, the legislature finds that the judicial term adjustments provided for district court judges in Laws 2021, ch. 74, § 1 and for metropolitan court judges in Laws 2021, ch. 74, § 2 are needed to:
A. balance the number of judicial positions appearing on the ballot in any one election cycle;
B. enable more effective evaluation of judges by the judicial performance evaluation commission; and
C. create greater continuity of judges at the trial court level by not having all judges up for judicial retention in the same election cycle.
Structure New Mexico Statutes
Article 26 - Nonpartisan Judicial Retention
Section 1-26-2 - Judicial retention; eligibility for retention; definitions.
Section 1-26-3 - Judicial retention; supreme court justices.
Section 1-26-4 - Judicial retention; appeals court judges.
Section 1-26-5 - Judicial retention; district court judges.
Section 1-26-6 - Judicial retention; metropolitan court judges.