New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 1 - GENERAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
Chapter 10 - ELECTIONS AND ELECTED OFFICIALS
Part 18 - ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINT PROCEDURE
Section 1.10.18.10 - HEARING ON A COMPLAINT

A. If the complainant requests a hearing and the bureau does not dismiss the complaint, the bureau will appoint a hearing officer to conduct a hearing on-the-record.

B. If the complainant did not request a hearing and the bureau does not dismiss the complaint, the bureau shall make a final determination in accordance with the remedies provision of these administrative procedures.

C. If the complaint is made against the bureau, the office of the secretary of state shall provide a neutral hearing officer who has no working or personal relationship with the office of the secretary of state.

D. For all other complaints, the office of the secretary of state shall provide a hearing officer. It may be, but is not limited to, an employee of the office of the secretary of state.

E. The bureau shall provide a time, date and location for the hearing and shall send written notice to complainant and alleged violator at least fifteen (15) days prior to the hearing. If there is an expedited hearing, the hearing officer shall provide telephonic and facsimile notice.

F. Upon written request to another party, any party may ask to obtain the names and addresses of witnesses who will or may be called by the other party to testify at the hearing and inspect and copy any documents that the other party will or may introduce in evidence at the hearing. The party to whom such a request is made should comply with it within ten (10) days after the receipt of the request. The hearing officer, however, has no statutory power to force the parties to comply with these requests.

G. If there is a hearing on the record, the record will include, at a minimum: the written complaint; written responses to the complaint; documentation provided in support of or in defense of the complaint; and written or audio record or any hearing or pre-hearing proceedings conducted by the hearing officer with regard to the complaint.

H. The hearing officer has the discretion to grant continuances, to take testimony or to examine witnesses. The hearing officer may also hold conferences before or during the hearing for the settlement or simplification of the issues.

I. The hearing officer may admit any evidence and may give probative effect to evidence that is of a kind commonly relied on by reasonably prudent people in the conduct of serious affairs. The hearing officer may, in his discretion, exclude incompetent, irrelevant, immaterial, and unduly repetitious evidence.

J. The bureau shall provide a tape recording of any on-the-record hearing. If a party wants a court reporter, that party must pay the cost.

K. If a person who has requested a hearing does not appear, and no continuance has been granted, the hearing officer may hear the evidence of such witnesses as may have appeared, and the hearing officer may proceed to consider the matter and dispose of it on the basis of the evidence before it. Where, because of accident, sickness or other cause, a person fails to appear for a hearing that he has requested, the person may, within ten (10) days, apply in writing to the hearing officer to reopen the proceeding, and the hearing officer upon finding sufficient cause shall immediately fix a time and place for a hearing and give the person notice as required above.