(a) Any elective officer of the city shall be subject to a recall election initiated by the following procedures:
(1) Notice of intent to circulate a petition for recall must be signed by five qualified voters and filed with the City Clerk.
(2) A petition for recall election shall cite grounds of misconduct in office or the violation of the oath of office by the official occurring during the current term of office.
(3) The recall petition shall be signed by not less than thirty-three and one third percent of the number of persons who voted in the last regular municipal election for the position the official was elected.
(4) Prior to and as a condition of circulating a petition for recall the factual allegations supporting the grounds of misconduct in office or violation of the oath of office stated in the petition shall be presented to the City Clerk. The petition shall not be circulated unless, after a hearing in state district court in which the proponents of the recall and the official sought to be recalled are given an opportunity to present evidence.
(5) The signed petitions must be filed with the City Clerk no more than 60 days after the determination of the district court. The City Clerk shall verify the signatures.
(6) No elected official shall be the subject of a recall election during the last six months of the official's term.
(b) The election must be held within ninety days after the last permissible date for filing petitions.
(c) At such election, the ballot shall contain the name of the officer, the position which the officer holds, and the dates of the beginning and termination of the official term. Below the name of the officer shall be the two phrases "For the Recall" and "Against the Recall", one below the other.
(d) If a majority of the ballots and a number equal to a majority of the ballots cast at the election of the officer whose recall is proposed, show a vote for the recall, the office in question shall be thenceforth vacant.
(e) If an officer is recalled as provided for above, the officer shall not be appointed to fill his or her own unexpired term nor be eligible for re-election to the position from which they have been recalled until the term for which the officer was originally elected shall have expired.
(f) Vacancies created by a recall election shall be filled in the same manner as is provided for the filling of vacancies in the office of Councillor or Mayor due to other causes; provided, that if all the Councillors are recalled at one election, the City Clerk, or if there be no City Clerk, the Chief Judge of the District Court of the County of Bernalillo, shall within three days call an election to be held in accordance with the provisions specified in this Charter for the election of Councillors at regular elections.
(g) When a Councillor is subjected to recall proceedings, only voters registered as residing in the District which the Councillor represents may sign petitions and vote in the recall proceedings.
(Amended at Regular Municipal Election, October 2, 2007.)