AI-assisted research summary: The county commissioners must choose polling places for most precincts, and school districts must allow school buildings to be used for elections when requested, with some location and accessibility conditions.
1-3-7. Polling places. A. No less than one polling place shall be provided for each precinct that is not a mail ballot election precinct; provided that in a local election, a precinct that lies partly within and partly without a district may be located in a single polling place and use a single election board. B. The board of county commissioners shall designate as the polling place or places, as the case may be, in each precinct, other than a mail ballot election precinct, the most convenient and suitable public building or public school building in the precinct that can be obtained. C. If no public building or public school building is available, the board of county commissioners shall provide some other suitable place, which shall be the most convenient and appropriate place obtainable in the precinct, considering the purpose for which it is to be used pursuant to the Election Code. D. If, in a precinct that is not a mail ballot election precinct or a consolidated precinct, there is no public building or public school building available in the precinct, and there is no other suitable place obtainable in the precinct, the board of county commissioners may designate as a polling place for the precinct the most convenient and suitable building or public school building nearest to that precinct that can be obtained. No polling place shall be designated outside the boundary of the precinct as provided in this subsection until such designated polling place is approved by written order of the district court of the county in which the precinct is located. E. Upon application of the board of county commissioners, the governing board of any school district shall permit the use of any school building or a part thereof for registration purposes and the conduct of any election; provided that the building or the part used for the election complies with the standards set out in the federal Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act. Application for use of a school building or any part thereof for the conduct of a statewide election shall be made by delivering to the superintendent of the school district the resolution adopted pursuant to Section 1-3-2 NMSA 1978. F. On the day of any statewide election for which application was made pursuant to Subsection E of this section, the board of education of a school district shall provide exclusive use of any school building or the part thereof to be used in the conduct of the election and shall provide sufficient parking for election officials and to permit voters to exercise the elective franchise. History: 1953 Comp., § 3-3-8, enacted by Laws 1969, ch. 240, § 57; 1971, ch. 316, § 1; 1984 (1st S.S.), ch. 3, § 3; 1987, ch. 249, § 6; 1989, ch. 392, § 5; 1991 (1st S.S.), ch. 6, § 3; 2009, ch. 251, § 4; 2009, ch. 274, § 3; 2011, ch. 131, § 4; 2018, ch. 79, § 5; 2019, ch. 212, § 40.