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There are three Las Cruces City Council districts up for election and three school board seats up for election.
The last day to file as a candidate for a local election was August 26.
The Las Cruces City Council seats that are up for grabs are district three, five, and six and the school board seats that are open are one, two and three for the Las Cruces Public School Board.
In district three for the Las Cruces City Council race, candidates Isaiah Tellez will go against Michael Harris to replace current councilor Becki Graham and district five has Ronnie Sisneros seeking to oust incumbent Becky Corran.
District six has a total of four candidates running for election with Ramona Bataneant, Tommy Black, Richard Reynaud and John Munoz all running to replace current councilor Yvonne Flores, who is not running again.
The city council races will use a voting system called ranked-choice voting. Instead of just choosing one candidate, voters list as many or as few candidates as they want in order of preference. The city says that this will lead to a more democratic process and lead to more accurate voting results.
As for the LCPS school board races, only two races are contested with incumbent Patrick Nolan being the only candidate running for district one. District two sees Kristina Moore running against incumbent Pamela Cort. District three has four people running including Paul Paar, Adrianna Garcia, Natalie Chadborn, and incumbent Robert Wofford.
James DeRossitt is the sole candidate for Municipal Judge in the city of Las Cruces.
County Clerk for Doña Ana County Amanda López-Askin said that even though this is an odd year election, this election still has major implications for many issues that people are most concerned about.
One example that she listed was how she used to be involved in school-based health centers before her time at the county and school board members are responsible for getting healthcare for students in schools.
“Because those school board members decided that that was something that they thought that students should have access to, that meant that students could access to healthcare on their campus. That's a big thing,” López-Askin said.
Some of the different ways that people can vote include in-person, by mail, and through early voting. If voting in person, any resident can use any voting location in the county.
López-Askin also highlighted a ranking done by MIT that lists New Mexico as the best state in the country when it comes to election administration.
“We just happen to be ranked number one because we have implemented the best practices. Part of that ranking includes access and that means we will do whatever we can to maximize the opportunities,” López-Askin said.
Election day will be on November 4.
