Attorney General Opinions and Advisory Letters

Opinion No. 72-06

January 20, 1972

BY: OPINION OF DAVID L. NORVELL, Attorney General Leila Andrews, Assistant Attorney General

TO: Mr. John H. Lewis, City Attorney, City of Alamogordo Alamogordo, New Mexico 88310

QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS

For purposes of a Municipal Election, is a party who lives outside of the municipality a qualified elector within the meaning of Section 14-8-6, N.M.S.A., 1953 Comp. (1971 P.S.), if the party operates a business within the municipal limits and uses the address of said business as his voting address?

CONCLUSION

No.

OPINION

{*9} ANALYSIS

Article V, Section 13 of the New Mexico State Constitution states as follows:

"All district, county, precinct and municipal officers, shall be residents of the political subdivisions for which they are elected or appointed. . . ."

Section 14-8-6, supra, is a further statement of the requirement that a candidate for municipal office reside in the municipality.

Statutes must be given their usual or ordinary meaning unless the legislative intent is clearly to the contrary. Winston v. New Mexico State Police Bd., 80 N.M. 310, 454 P.2d 967 (1969); Albuquerque Lumber Co. v. Bureau of Revenue, 42 N.M. 58, 75 P.2d 334 (1938). The word "residence" as used in statutes specifying qualifications of electors to be entitled to vote means to be in residence, one's place of abode, as distinguished from a place where one is employed or an office or place devoted strictly to commercial enterprise. Ingram v. State (Okla. Crim. 1954) 275 P.2d 334. See Opinion of the Attorney General No. 66-30, dated March 10, 1966.

Under such an interpretation one can only conclude that an individual who lives outside the municipality but operates a business within the municipal limits and uses the address of said business as his voting address is not a "qualified elector" within the meaning of Section 14-8-6, supra.