The action can now pass remotely too

Not just the quorum. The same section provides: “A majority of the votes entitled to be cast on a matter to be voted upon by the members present, represented by proxy or via simultaneous, remote electronic means at a meeting at which a quorum is present shall be necessary for the adoption thereof unless a greater proportion is required by the Nonprofit Corporation Act, the articles of incorporation or the bylaws.”

So an incorporated New Mexico association can, by default, reach quorum and pass a measure with members attending remotely — unless its own documents say otherwise.

The carve-out that catches boards

Section 53-8-22, the directors' meetings section, opens its remote-participation sentence with “Except as otherwise restricted by the articles of incorporation or bylaws.”

Read that carefully. An association whose bylaws require board meetings to be held in person still cannot hold its board meetings remotely, even after SB 72. The statute permits; the bylaws can still prohibit. A board that started meeting by video in 2025 on the strength of this law, without checking its own bylaws, may have been holding invalid meetings ever since.

What survived unchanged

Two pre-existing provisions were kept alongside the new remote machinery rather than replaced by it.

Proxy expiry. “No proxy shall be valid after eleven months from the date of its execution, unless otherwise provided in the proxy.” Associations that collect proxies once and reuse them across years have always been doing something the statute does not permit, and that has not changed.

Mail ballots. “Where directors or officers are to be elected by members, the bylaws may provide that such elections may be conducted by mail.” Remote electronic voting was added alongside mail balloting, so an association has three routes to a vote rather than a replacement for one.

Why the 10 percent figure matters so much

Because quorum failure is the single most common governance problem in New Mexico associations, and the default number is far lower than most boards believe. An association with 200 lots and no quorum provision in its bylaws needs 20 votes represented — in person, by proxy, or now remotely — to transact business.

Two cautions. The one-tenth default applies only “in the absence of any such provision” in the bylaws. An association whose bylaws set a higher quorum is bound by its own number. And the Homeowner Association Act and the Condominium Act impose their own requirements on particular kinds of decisions, which the corporate quorum rule does not displace.

Where boards stand

Read the bylaws for three things: the quorum figure, whether they restrict board meetings to in-person, and whether they address electronic voting. Then decide deliberately whether to amend — because SB 72 gives an association more flexibility than many New Mexico bylaws currently allow it to use.

Worth noting what this law is not. It is a corporate-governance amendment, not an HOA bill. In two legislative sessions, every measure filed as an HOA bill died, and the only substantive change to the Homeowner Association Act arrived as Section 4 of a child care zoning bill. SB 72 reaches associations for the same reason: it was written about nonprofit corporations, and most associations are one.