Board of Canvassing approves Rio Rancho canvass despite reporting header error; runoff set for April 14

The Sandoval County Board of Canvassing approved the Rio Rancho municipal canvass on a motion that noted a formatting discrepancy in the published report, after Rio Rancho City Clerk Noel Davis presented the complete canvas book and vote totals.

“Before each of you is a complete canvas book, and it does detail the results of the Rio Rancho municipal officer election, which was held on 03/03/2026,” Davis told the board, summarizing turnout and vote-tabulation details. She reported 81,437 registered voters in Rio Rancho and 13,814 ballots cast, a 16.96% turnout, and gave a breakdown of early voting, election-day voting and hand tallies. Davis also told the board she had notified the Secretary of State about a header/alignment error in the published spreadsheet that mislabels hand-tallied ballots but said the underlying counts recorded in the canvas are correct.

Davis said a mayoral race did not reach the 50% threshold required to win outright and that a runoff is scheduled for April 14, with early voting March 31–April 11. “Our runoff election will be on April 14,” she said.

A commissioner moved to revise the board’s approval language so the official record would reflect the clerks’ corrected hand-tally reconciliation; the motion was seconded and approved by roll call. The board’s manager/staff confirmed the accurate numbers are in the record even though the report header needs correction.

The board’s approval noted the discrepancy would be corrected in the official record; Davis said she had reached out to the Secretary of State and local staff would attempt to fix the alignment in the published report. The clerk also reported 14 total hand tallies and that seven of seven returned overseas ballots were accepted.

The board did not change the vote tallies and concluded the clerks’ corrections would be entered into the record.