New Mexico Territorial Laws and Treaties NM TERR LAWS JOINT RESOLUTION § 3. Constitutional amendment to be adopted

Before the proclamation of the president shall issue announcing the result of said election in New Mexico, and at the same time that the state election aforesaid is held, the electors of New Mexico shall vote upon the following proposed amendment of their state constitution as a condition precedent to the admission of said state, to wit:

“ARTICLE XIX of the constitution, as adopted by the electors of New Mexico at an election held on the twenty-first day of January, anno Domini nineteen hundred and eleven, be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:

“ ‘Section 1. Any amendment or amendments to this constitution may be proposed in either house of the legislature at any regular session thereof; and if a majority of all members elected to each of the two houses voting separately shall vote in favor thereof, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their respective journals with the yeas and nays thereon.

“ ‘The secretary of state shall cause any such amendment or amendments to be published in at least one newspaper in every county of the state, where a newspaper is published once each week, for four consecutive weeks, in English and Spanish when newspapers in both of said languages are published in such counties, the last publication to be not more than two weeks prior to the election at which time said amendment or amendments shall be submitted to the electors of the state for their approval or rejection; and the said amendment or amendments shall be voted upon at the next regular election held in said state after the adjournment of the legislature proposing such amendment or amendments, or at such special election to be held not less than six months after the adjournment of said legislature, at such time as said legislature may by law provide. If the same be ratified by a majority of the electors voting thereon such amendment or amendments shall become part of this constitution. If two or more amendments are proposed, they shall be so submitted as to enable the electors to vote on each of them separately: provided, that no amendment shall apply to or affect the provisions of Sections One and Three of Article VII hereof, on elective franchise, and Sections Eight and Ten of Article XII hereof, on education, unless it be proposed by a vote of three-fourths of the members elected to each house and be ratified by a vote of the people of this state in an election at which at least three-fourths of the electors voting in the whole state and at least two-thirds of those voting in each county in the state shall vote for such amendment.

“ ‘Sec. 2. Whenever, during the first twenty-five years after the adoption of this constitution, the legislature, by a three-fourths vote of the members elected to each house, or, after the expiration of said period of twenty-five years, by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to each house, shall deem it necessary to call a convention to revise or amend this constitution, they shall submit the question of calling such convention to the electors at the next general election, and if a majority of all the electors voting on such question at said election in the state shall vote in favor of calling a convention the legislature shall, at the next session, provide by law for calling the same. Such convention shall consist of at least as many delegates as there are members of the house of representatives. The constitution adopted by such convention shall have no validity until it has been submitted to and ratified by the people.

“ ‘Sec. 3. If this constitution be in any way so amended as to allow laws to be enacted by direct vote of the electors the laws which may be so enacted shall be only such as might be enacted by the legislature under the provisions of this constitution.

“ ‘Sec. 4. When the United States shall consent thereto, the legislature, by a majority vote of the members in each house, may submit to the people the question of amending any provision of Article XXI of this constitution on compact with the United States to the extent allowed by the act of congress permitting the same, and if a majority of the qualified electors who vote upon any such amendment shall vote in favor thereof the said article shall be thereby amended accordingly.

“ ‘Sec. 5. The provisions of Section One of this article shall not be changed, altered or abrogated in any manner except through a general convention called to revise this constitution as herein provided.’ ”