STATE OF NEW MEXICO

COUNTY OF BERNALILLO
SECOND JUDIDICAL DISTRICT COURT

STELLA PADILLA,
Plaintiff
Case No. D-202-CV-2017-03556
v.

NATALIE HOWARD,
In her capacity as City Clerk,
Defendant.

AMENDED VERIFIED COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY JUDGMENT AND

INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

COMES NOW, Stella Padilla, pursuant to the City of Albuquerque Charter Article II

(ELECTIONS) section (4) and NMSA 44-6-1 et. seq; bringing this action to challenge the City

Clerks determination of the number of valid nominating petition signatures tendered by Plaintiff

to have this Court declare that based upon the law and the evidence that Plaintiff, has duly filed

her Declaration of Candidacy with the City Clerk and has complied with all laws, regulations,

City Charter, and the Election Code State of New Mexico in filing a sufficient number of valid

nominating petition signatures to be a candidate for the Mayor of the City of Albuquerque in the

upcoming election of 2017. Further, Stella Padilla seeks injunctive relief from this Court to

preserve the status quo and to prevent the City of Albuquerque from interfering in the election

process to prevent Plaintiffs candidacy until the Court has evaluated the evidence and determined

the validity of her candidacy.

Parties and Procedures

1. Plaintiff Stella Padilla is a resident of the City of Albuquerque and a registered Voter in

the City of Albuquerque and in New Mexico.

2. Defendant is an employee of the City of Albuquerque and is listed in the City of

Albuquerques web-site, as the City Clerk in charge of all municipal elections.

3. Defendant is not an elected position by the voters of Albuquerque. However, Natalie

Howard was the nominee of Mayor Berry and confirmed by the City Council on or around

May of 2015. Mrs. Howard serves in her capacity to maintain all municipal elections in

the City of Albuquerque, and has the direct discretion to place candidates on the ballot and

remove candidates from the ballot. City Clerk position is purely administrative and does

not set policy or law.

4. The Second Judicial District Court is the proper venue as the City Clerk Natalie Howard,

(Defendant) and Stella Padilla, (Plaintiff) both reside in the City of Albuquerque,

Bernalillo County.

Request for Relief

5. Relief may be brought by the following action as the VETTING process by the City

Clerk and her staff are unsophisticated and flawed. The rules adopted by the City of

Albuquerque offer no formal set of procedures and respect for the due process rights of the

individual. The Clerks oversight and execution of duties in this matter is thus arbitrary

and capricious and has thereby, resulted in a flawed outcome as there was no adequate

notice, hearing and impartiality in rejecting her signatures and removal from the

ballot. Sufficient notice must be given in order to apprise interested parties of the

importance of the action, afford them an opportunity to present objections, and enable

them to determine what is being proposed and what must be done to protect their

interest. Plaintiff seeks an Order from this Court declaring that Plaintiff has obtained the

required number of valid nominating petition signatures to be a candidate for Mayor of

 Albuquerque and enjoining the City Clerk of Albuquerque from depriving Plaintiff of the

opportunity to be elected fairly causing irreparable harm to Plaintiff.

Allegations Supporting Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief

6. ARTICLE II. ELECTIONS QUALIFICATIONS FOR MAYOR AND COUNCILLORS.

(Amended at a Special Election held in conjunction with a Regular Municipal Election,

October 5, 1999, as Question #3. Amended at a Regular Municipal Election, October 6,

2009. [SIC] Persons desiring to become candidates for Mayor shall, before being placed

on the ballot, file with the City Clerk a petition containing signatures of three thousand

(3,000) registered city voters. Stella Padilla has submitted over four thousand 4000

signatures and as of May 3, 2017 according to the City of Albuquerque (COA) website

Stella Padilla needed 3000 signatures and is listed with 94.3% of 3000, which leaves 181

to the negative. Stella Padilla was originally told she needed 177 signatures to be placed

back on the ballot.

7. Stella Padilla has complied with all the processes to get on the ballot for Mayor and the

will of the people shall prevail. Alone (PRIMA FACIE) Plaintiff Stella Padilla turned in

over 4000 good signatures and done in good faith, and that alone is the will of the people

and the will of the people should always prevail. SEE: (CHARLEY V. JOHNSON, 2010-

NMSC-024, 148 N.M. 246, 233 P.3d 775) The New Mexico Supreme Court stated. We

must keep in mind that it was not just his interests that were at stake, but also the

right of the citizens to nominate and vote for the candidate of their choice. See

Gunaji v. Macias, 2001-NMSC-028, 26, 130 N.M. 734, 31 P.3d 1008 (recognizing "the

basic right to vote for the candidate of one's choice" and acknowledging that an "omission

of a candidate's name from the ballot has deprived some voters of that choice, thereby,
 strictly speaking, compromising the validity of the election"); see also Williams v.

Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23, 31, 89 S. Ct. 5, 21 L.Ed.2d 24 (1968).

8. Paper documents were NOT given to Stella Padilla to personally vette the signatures on or

about May 3, 2017. (See Exhibit 2, Documents audited) The documents provided by the

City Clerk were not legible, not in any format to vette the process, and no assistance was

given to Stella to Vette the accuracy of the City of Albuquerque staff while they were

vetting the nominating petition signatures.

9. Natalie Howard, instead pointed Stella Padilla to the Bernalillo County Clerk, Linda

Stover for assistance and the process to vette the signatures.

10. Bernalillo County Clerk, printed the hard copy of the process the City Clerk used and in a

format that could be audited.

11. Stella Padilla and a licensed private investigator in NM and two assistance were joined in

the process to start vetting the work performed by Natalie Howard and staff.

12. Stella Padilla was told she needed 177 more signatures that were good to be placed back

on the ballot and the City Clerk Natalie Howard was delivered on May 16, 2017 one

hundred and eighty-one (181) good verified signatures using (POWER PROFILE)

software, same voter registration system used by the Secretary of State and by all (32)

County Clerks in the state of New Mexico.

13. On May 17, 2017 a letter was sent by Natalie Howard Illustrating the following. See
excerpt below from Natalie Howard (Exhibit #1).
14. During the process of vetting the signatures given from Natalie Howard to Stella Padilla for

vetting. The documents being audited have a perpetual consistent amount of errors. Stellas

audit team could find voters in Power Profile that were registered voters when they were

deemed Not Legible, We found registered voters that were deemed Not Legible, Do Not

Reside in District, Duplicate, and Not a Registered Voter. Perhaps the most damaging part

of vetting the signatures at the County Clerks office was the missing (NUMBERS) from

City Clerks search, on most pages, from 1 to 6 signatures were NOT EVEN CHECKED

BY THE CITY CLERK, TOTALLY BYPASSED. The process of vetting the nominating

petitions by the City Clerk and staff, IS inaccurate and is deeply flawed and no set of

instructions or structure was approved by the City Council pertaining to this process. There are

no STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES (SOP) or administrative procedures

approved by the City Council concerning the process and procedure of the City Clerk and staff

vetting nominating petitions. It is at best a hit and miss and arbitrary process left to the

competency and potential individual discretion/bias of the person reviewing each page at the

City Clerks office.

15. For example if a voter sign the petition for Ms. Padilla today and goes to the Department

of Motor vehicle for a license renewal. All citizens are given a right to update their voter

registration information and will impact the validity of the signature done days before for

Stella Padilla. This process can affect the amount of signatures that were valid at the time

and now deemed ineligible. Also, Military personal sign in print block letters and do not

use cursive as cursive is not even being taught in the school setting in the USA, others

sign with an X because of a disability. Should a persons ability to sign, using an X, print
 their name or write in a not so legible fashion remove their signature from the

NOMINATING PETITION PROCESS.

16. A voter can reside in a different location as noted on many nominating petitions for Stella

Padilla and registered in another location previously, Thus the Court should treat those

signatures as valid if they are found to have previously lived in another address in the

Albuquerque Mayoral District. No credit for those signatures were given at the time the

City Clerk checked Stellas petitions.

17. Dates of Voter record search using Power-Profile software, was from May 8, 2017

Through May 15, 2017. Names and addresses were verified using Wild Card (%) searches

and special searches using address digits only and zip code combined. All first names such

as Ralph, searched for (RAL%) and Last name Smith searched for SMI%. A list of the

nominating signatures that have audited and been found to have been voided in error to be

reviewed by this Court is attached to the affidavit attached hereto as Exhibit 2.

Conclusion

WHEREFORE, Plaintiff respectfully prays for the Court to enter an Order declaring that

Plaintiff has satisfied the nominating petition requirements to be a candidate for the office of

Mayor of Albuquerque and enjoining the City Clerk Natalie Howard from interfering with

Plaintiffs valid candidacy.

Respectfully Submitted,

/s/ A. Blair Dunn

A. Blair Dunn, Esq.
400 Gold Ave. SW, Suite 1000
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 750-3060
 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I HEREBY CERTIFY that on May 29, 2017, I filed a true and correct copy of the
foregoing via the New Mexico E-filing System causing all parties of record to be served
electronically.

/s/. A. Blair Dunn

A. Blair Dunn, Esq.
 EXHIBIT 2

A list of the names that have thus far been determined to have been
improperly excluded contains 186 names.