(NewsNation) — Voters in Santa Fe cast ballots Tuesday for a new mayor in a ranked-choice voting system, the second time the system has been used for that office.
Voters will choose between a crowded eight-candidate field while still grappling with confusion around ranked choice voting.
Candidates include Santa Fe County commissioner Justin Greene, city council member Michael Garcia, former city council members Ronald Trujillo and JoAnne Coppler, New Mexico Finance Authority Chief Financial Officer Oscar Salazar Rodriguez, businesswoman Letitia Montoya, journalist Tarin Nix and academic Jeanne O’Dean.
Affordable housing was a top issue in the race, along with crime, public safety and homelessness. Greene led the pack on fundraising with a cumulative total of $130,837, followed by Coppler at $90,161, according to reporting by the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Under ranked-choice voting, voters rank the candidates by preference. Vote are distributed to each candidates based on first choices from the ballot. If no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and the votes redistributed to other candidates based on how voters ranked them. The process continues until a candidate gets the majority needed to win.
Polls in New Mexico close at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday. See results of the Santa Fe mayoral race in the tracker below: