The election provided for in the preceding section [49-2-3 NMSA 1978] shall be held by three judges who shall be owners and proprietors residing upon said grant, and the heads of families, and shall be designated by votes of two-thirds of the trustees present at the regular meeting of such board of trustees held in October next preceding the date of such election. No more than two of such judges shall reside in the same precinct, if there be more than one precinct in such land grant. It shall be the duty of the outgoing board of trustees to give notice of the time and place of such election by posting not less than three notices in public places in each precinct in which the grant is situated, such notices to be in both the English and Spanish languages, and to be posted not less than twenty days before the date of such election. Said elections shall be by ballot, and each ballot cast shall have the name of the voter casting the same written thereon, and all ballots shall be preserved by the judges of election until the next ensuing meeting of the board of trustees, and so much longer thereafter as said board shall direct. It shall be the duty of such judges of election to canvass the ballots cast at such election and issue certificates of election to each of the nine persons receiving the highest number of votes cast at such election, and such certificates will authorize the persons to whom they are respectively issued to discharge the duties of such trustees for the term for which they were elected and until the election and qualification of their successors.

History: Laws 1917, ch. 3, § 4; C.S. 1929, § 29-204; 1941 Comp., § 9-204; 1953 Comp., § 8-2-4.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

Cross references. — For secrecy of the ballot, see N.M. Const., art. VII, § 1.

Lack of standing in quiet title suit. — Where a land grant association's board of trustees had not called an election by its members or the trustees as required by law and had not identified the persons having an interest in the lands claimed by the association who had a right to vote at an election and the treasurer had not furnished a surety bond, the association lacked standing as a land grant community or board to assert a claim of title to lands at issue in a suit to quiet title. Cordova v. Broadbent, 1988-NMSC-042, 107 N.M. 215, 755 P.2d 59.