Opinion ID: 6472358
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: this court’s jurisdiction over petitioners’ claim

Text: {18} This Court denied Petitioners’ December 16, 2004, petition for a writ of mandamus, prohibition and/or superintending control on December 22, 2004. The State Canvassing Board argues that because the right to both a recount and recheck are exclusively statutory, this Court’s denial of Petitioners’ writ exhausted the only statutory remedy available to them. Petitioners claim that our denial of their writ does not preclude appellate review of the district court’s December 15, 2004, order refusing to issue a writ of mandamus compelling action by the State Canvassing Board. {19} Article VI, section 2 of the New Mexico Constitution guarantees an aggrieved party an absolute right to one appeal. Any aggrieved party in a civil action may appeal the final order of the district court to the New Mexico Supreme Court or Court of Appeals. NMSA 1978, § 39-3-2 (1966). The procedure to be followed by every appellant from a district court judgment is laid out in Rules 12-201 to 12-216 NMRA. Petitioners’ writ of mandamus, prohibition and/or superintending control, which was denied by this Court, is a separate and distinct procedure from the appellate review Petitioners are now seeking. The narrow circumstances in which the issuance of such a writ is appropriate help explain why we denied Petitioners’ December 15, 2004, writ petition. {20} The Election Code allows an applicant for recount or recheck to petition the district court for writ of mandamus to compel performance of required acts, such as compelling the State Canvassing Board to issue summonses to the precinct boards. Section 1-14-21. Like all other extraordinary writs, “[m]andamus is an extraordinary remedy which is available only in cases wherein other remedies fail or are inadequate.” Ellinwood v. Morales, 104 N.M. 243, 245, 719 P.2d 821, 823 (Ct.App.1986). The Legislature has provided that the district court has “exclusive original jurisdiction in all cases of mandamus.” See NMSA 1978, § 44-2-3 (1884). Although this Court has exercised original jurisdiction in cases other than those provided by statute, see State ex rel. Clark v. Johnson, 120 N.M. 562, 569, 904 P.2d 11, 18 (1995), we have done so when we were satisfied that exercising original jurisdiction was appropriate, id. Because a writ of mandamus from this Court is appropriate only in limited circumstances, the denial of Petitioners’ petition for a writ “does not preclude appellate review of the trial court’s action and does not necessarily reflect upon the merits of [Petitioners’] contentions for purposes of this appeal.” State v. House, 1999-NMSC-014, ¶ 25, 127 N.M. 151, 978 P.2d 967. See also State v. Ware, 115 N.M. 339, 343, 850 P.2d 1042, 1046 (Ct.App.1993) (“The denial of a writ of prohibition does not necessarily mean that the Supreme Court reached the merits of the issue argued in support of the writ, especially where there exists an adequate remedy at law.”). Finally, “in all cases of proceedings by mandamus in any district court of this state, the final judgment of the court thereon shall be reviewable by appeal ... in the same manner as now provided by law in other civil cases.” NMSA 1978, § 44-2-14 (1899). {21} In Petitioners’ petition to this Court for extraordinary relief, they claimed they had no plain or speedy alternative remedy at law. Yet they did have a right of appeal, and as this appeal illustrates, the Court of Appeals may, under certain circumstances, transfer an appeal to this Court. This Court denied Petitioners’ requested relief without comment. We are not persuaded that on direct appeal Petitioners should be denied appellate review of the relief they originally requested by way of an extraordinary writ, even though that relief cannot be ordered at this time. As a result, we reach the merits of Petitioners’ claim.
{22} Having found that Petitioners are entitled to a direct review of the district court’s order, we must now decide whether Petitioners are still entitled to any relief. The State Canvassing Board contends that Petitioners’ claim is moot because a recount and reeheck of the 2004 presidential election results are no longer possible, the result of the 2004 presidential election would not be affected by a change in results in New Mexico, and New Mexico’s electoral college votes have already been cast and recorded. While both Petitioners and the State Canvassing Board acknowledge that the 2005 amendment to Section 1-14-15(B) does not apply to Petitioners’ claim, the State Canvassing Board maintains Petitioners’ claim is also moot because the amendment clarifies legislative intent by explicitly conferring the authority that the State Canvassing Board implicitly held under the 2001 version of Section 1 — 14— 15(B). {23} “As a general rule, this Court does not decide moot cases.” Gunaji v. Macias, 2001-NMSC-028, ¶ 9, 130 N.M. 734, 31 P.3d 1008; see also Mowrer v. Rusk, 95 N.M. 48, 51, 618 P.2d 886, 889 (1980). “A case is moot when no actual controversy exists, and the court cannot grant actual relief.” Gunaji, 2001-NMSC-028, ¶ 9, 130 N.M. 734, 31 P.3d 1008 (quoted authority omitted). Two mootness exceptions exist, however. We may review moot cases that (1) present issues of substantial public interest or (2) which are capable of repetition yet evading review. Id. ¶ 10. Petitioners claim that their case is entitled to review under both exceptions. We address each exception to mootness in turn.
{24} Petitioners argue the case is of substantial public interest because it implicates the guarantee of “free and open” elections under article II, section 8 of the New Mexico Constitution (“All elections shall be free and open, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage”). Based on the statutory language of either the pre-amendment or post-amendment version of Section 1-14-15, which entitles candidates to a recount or reeheek, Petitioners argue the Legislature has given a statutory directive to ensure the transparency of election process. The State Canvassing Board generally claims that Petitioners’ case is moot because the voting machines used in the 2004 election have been cleared and a change in New Mexico’s election results cannot affect the national results in the 2004 presidential election, but the State Canvassing Board does not specifically address the issue of substantial public interest. {25} In Gunaji, an election recount case, this Court found errors on election ballots cast on a single voting machine to be of substantial public interest. 2001-NMSC-028, ¶ 10, 130 N.M. 734, 31 P.3d 1008. In that case, the election ballots for a Senate seat and a County Commissioner seat cast on the voting machine failed to contain the correct names of the candidates for those positions. Id. ¶ 2. Before the error was discovered in the voting machine, sixty-six votes were cast. Id. ¶ 3. The results of both races were close enough for the error in these sixty-six votes to change the outcome of the election. Id. The Court found Gunaji to raise issues of substantial public interest because the case required the Court to determine the appropriate means to contest an election and what remedy was available when the error could change the outcome. Id. ¶ 10. {26} Petitioners’ appeal raises similar concerns about our Election Code and potential error in the 2004 presidential election. First, Petitioners claim error in this case has the ability to change the winner of New Mexico’s presidential election from President Bush to Senator Kerry. Second, the State Canvassing Board is exercising authority to condition the issuance of summonses to precinct board members that it had not exercised previously. These issues raise concerns regarding how recounts will be handled in future elections and are of substantial public interest. The importance of recounts is clear when considered in the context of the last two presidential elections. {27} Our country experienced very close and contentious presidential elections in both 2000 and 2004. In 2000, Americans witnessed a fury of legal protests to the Florida presidential election results from the nominees of both the Democratic and Republican parties that ended up before the United States Supreme Court. See Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 121 S.Ct. 525, 148 L.Ed.2d 388 (2000). That litigation included Florida Supreme Court interpretation of Florida’s election contest and recount statutes, and interaction between state and federal law in presidential election contests. Id. at 100-03, 121 S.Ct. 525. Then, in 2004, the presidential election again turned on the results in one state, and threats of legal challenges to the vote counting again loomed. See generally Daniel P. Tokaji, Early Returns on Election Reform: Discretion, Disenfranchisement, and the Help America Vote Act, 73 Geo. Wash. L.Rev. 1206, 1206 (2005) (noting the margin of victory in Ohio was large enough to “overcome any legal challenges that might have arisen from uncounted provisional votes, ambiguously marked ‘hanging chad’ punch card ballots, and lengthy lines that may have discouraged many citizens from voting”). {28} With this background of close and contentious elections, it is undeniable that clarification of the recount and recheck provisions of the Election Code is a matter of substantial public interest. As a result, we reach the merits of Petitioners’ appeal.
{29} While the substantial public interest in this issue allows us to reach the merits of this case, we choose to address the second exception to mootness, issues capable of repetition yet evading review, because of the Legislature’s action in this case. The State Canvassing Board’s act of conditioning a recount or recheck on the advance payment of the entire estimated costs of the recount and recheek is capable of repetition yet evading review for two reasons: (1) the short statutory time frame for election contests, recounts, and rechecks, as we saw in the 2000 presidential election, make judicial review of error or fraud difficult; and (2) the Legislature’s amendment to Section 1-14^15(B) is unconstitutional and the 2001 version of the statute is still effective, therefore, the State Canvassing Board’s actions under the 2001 version of Section 1-14-15(B) may be repeated. We squarely address the second reason in our review of the constitutionality of the 2005 amendment, in part IV(B) and (C)(1). {30} In Gunaji, this Court found the human error in the election process was capable of repetition yet evading review because terms of office may expire before this Court could address whether errors had occurred. 2001-NMSC-028, ¶ 10, 130 N.M. 734, 31 P.3d 1008. In this case, Section 1-14-14(A) allows “any candidate for any office for which the state canvassing board or county canvassing board issues a certificate of nomination or election” to petition for a recount and recheck. Therefore, any candidate could be a future applicant in the same position as Petitioners in this case. Because of the broad applicability of Section 1-14-14(A) and the State Canvassing Board’s belief in its authority to condition a recount or recheek on the entire estimated costs of the recount or recheck, the State Canvassing Board’s action is capable of repetition. {31} The term of office has not expired, as it did in Gunaji, but the short time frame provided for election contests, recounts, and rechecks also make Petitioners’ claim an issue capable of evading review. Unlike the 2000 presidential election contest, this Court is not faced with the pressure of a decision that will change the result of the election, as were the United States Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court. However, our Election Code also has numerous deadlines that future protestants to an election must meet that could place this Court in a situation where time would be of the essence. See NMSA 1978, § 1-13-13(A) (1979) (requiring county canvassing boards to declare results ten days from the election date); NMSA 1978, § 1-13-15 (1977) (requiring the state canvassing board to declare the results for elections on the third Tuesday after each election); NMSA 1978, § 1-14-3 (1971) (requiring that a complaint to contest an election must come no later than thirty days from the issuance of the certificate of election). {32} As a result, we reach the merits of Petitioners’ appeal because the State Canvassing Board’s action of conditioning a future petitioner’s application for a recount or recheck on the full estimated costs of the recount or recheck is capable of repetition yet evading review.