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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Albuquerque voters will go to the polls today in an election that will help shape the city’s leadership for the next four years.

The ballot includes a crowded mayoral race, the hotly debated Healthy Workforce Ordinance proposal, five City Council seats and 11 bond questions.

Registered city voters can cast their ballots at any of 53 voting centers across the city but must present a photo ID. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

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“We’re ready,” said City Clerk Natalie Howard, who is overseeing the election. She urged voters to go to the city’s website – cabq.gov – to find a voting location.

It’s the first time in 20 years that an incumbent won’t be on the ballot in the mayoral race.

The eight mayoral candidates who qualified for the ballot are Michelle Garcia Holmes, Brian Colón, Susan Wheeler-Deichsel, Ricardo Chaves, Timothy Keller, Dan Lewis, Gus Pedrotty and Wayne Johnson. Chaves, however, announced last week that he was dropping out of the race.

If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff election on Nov. 14. The new mayor takes office Dec. 1.

Colón, Keller and Pedrotty are Democrats, although city races are nonpartisan, meaning that political affiliation won’t appear on the ballot. Lewis and Johnson are Republicans. Garica Holmes and Wheeler-Deichsel are independents.

Three write-in candidates have also been certified. They are Stella Padilla, Pablo Reyes and Keith Judd.

The latest Journal Poll, conducted last week, showed Keller still in first place with 29 percent of the vote, followed by Lewis with 18 percent, Colón with 14 percent and Johnson with 10 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

Sick leave ordinance

The proposed Healthy Workforce Ordinance is a ballot initiative that has generated thousands of dollars’ worth of campaigning on both sides.

That campaigning came down to the wire Monday, with Mayor Richard Berry issuing a last-minute statement in opposition to the ordinance, which sparked strong reaction from supporters.

If approved by voters, the measure would require employers to allow workers to earn paid sick time off. It would apply to full-time, part-time and temporary workers at any business with a physical presence in Albuquerque. The 1,900-word ordinance takes up the entire backside of the ballot.

It has the strong support of community groups who say people need to be able to take time off when they or their family members are ill; business groups and others say the proposed ordinance goes too far and the details would kill jobs.

Berry issued the eleventh-hour plea in a statement to the Journal asking voters to reject the measure.

“Albuquerque employees should have paid sick leave; we had paid time off for sick leave – PTO – in our family business, and it was the right thing to do,” he said in the statement. “But the poorly crafted and deceptive legislation you will be voting on … is NOT a workable solution for anyone. The best thing we can all do for Albuquerque businesses and their employees is to vote NO on this ordinance and then convene business leaders, employees, community organizations, myself and/or the next Mayor, and the City Council to craft a reasonable and common sense sick leave policy for our city.”

Andrea Serrano, executive director of OLÉ – one of the groups advocating for the ordinance – accused Berry of playing politics.

“Everyone in Albuquerque gets sick, but only half of our employees can take paid time off to care for themselves or a loved one,” Serrano said. “Mayor Berry has never recognized this as a problem until (Monday), even though this issue has been brought to his attention since at least 2015. Rather than treat this as a serious issue that needs to be addressed immediately, Mayor Berry has once again chosen to play politics with the lives of the hardworking people of Albuquerque. Voters should vote for our proposed ordinance … if they believe that no employee should have to work sick. Otherwise, they can expect Mayor Berry to leave office without addressing this problem.”

Of the likely voters interviewed for the Journal Poll, 48 percent said they were in favor of the sick leave measure, and 44 percent said they were opposed.

The city clerk is making magnifiers available and will have copies of the Healthy Workforce Ordinance available at voting centers.

City Council

Voters in City Council Districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be voting on their city councilors. Fourteen candidates are running for those five seats.

In District 1, incumbent Ken Sanchez, a Democrat, is being challenged by fellow Democrat Javier Benavidez and independents Sandra Mills and Johnny Luevano Jr. The West Side district lies south of Montaño NW and north of Central.

The District 3 race pits incumbent Klarissa Peña against Christopher R. Sedillo. Both are Democrats. The district encompasses Southwest Albuquerque south of Central Avenue.

The District 5 seat is currently held by Lewis, one of the mayoral candidates, which means no incumbent is running in that council race. Republican Robert Aragon, Democrat Cynthia Borrego and independent Catherine Trujillo are vying for that seat. The district covers far Northwest Albuquerque.

In District 7, incumbent Diane Gibson, a Democrat, is running against Republican Eric Lucero. It’s a rectangular Northeast Heights district between Interstate 25 and Eubank NE, and between Montgomery and Lomas.

And in District 9, incumbent Don Harris, a Republican, is up against Democrat Byron Powdrell and Libertarian Paul Ryan McKenney. The district is south of Menaul NE and east of Eubank.

The city, meanwhile, is seeking approval from voters for $125 million in bonds that would pay for street repairs, police cars, new parks and many other major capital projects. The projects are broken into a series of 11 questions on the ballot.

As of Friday, when early voting closed, 40,889 people had cast their ballots, Howard said. She said Monday that more than 3,000 voters had already submitted their absentee ballots. There are roughly 336,000 registered voters in Albuquerque.

During the 2013 mayoral election, 26,035 people cast early votes.