Ballots for Colorado Springs election will be mailed this week
Deb Walker hopes that come April 7 Colorado Springs will rock its vote right from the kitchen table.
“The hope is that an all-mail ballot election will improve voter turnout,” said Walker, acting director of the Citizens Project – a nonprofit that focuses on diversity, equality and civic engagement. “We are trying to get the word out.”
City Clerk Sarah Johnson expects to put the first batch of ballots in the mail on Friday.
“Some people might get them that Friday,” Johnson said. “For sure, by Saturday.”
Ballots will go out in waves until March 23 as the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder sends Johnson’s office updated voter information. The approximately 280,000 registered voters in the city will have until 7 p.m. April 7 to return the ballots.
Colorado Springs voters will choose a new mayor and three at-large City Council members. Voters in District 2 will choose a new City Council member to complete the term of Joel Miller, who resigned his seat in November to run for mayor. And voters in District 4 will decide whether Councilwoman Helen Collins should be recalled.
Voters also will be asked if they want to change the city charter to allow the City Council to hire and fire its own staff, and for a charter language cleanup that says the mayor will no longer be responsible for signing contracts related to Colorado Springs Utilities.
With the mail ballots, people can register to vote or change their information right up to the election. Johnson said ballots will be accepted at 10 locations, including the City Administration Building, until 7 p.m. on Election Day.
She expects to have first-round, unofficial election results by 7:30 p.m. that night, and could release updated results every half hour, depending on the number of ballots returned, she said.
Walker hopes a “Get out the Vote” campaign by Pikes Peak Equality Coalition will bump up turnout. In April 2011, the last mayoral election, 151,203 ballots were returned by voters and counted by the clerk’s office – a 59 percent voter turnout.
The coalition has written 3,000 postcards to registered voters, made phone calls and will knock on doors.
“We are just saying, ‘Hey, ballots were mailed out, have you received yours?'” Walker said. “We want to help people understand that the system has changed and they can vote right from the kitchen table.”
Anyone with questions can contact the Citizens Project or the city clerk, Walker said.
“People should be proactive,” Walker said. “If they have not received their ballot by March 20, the Citizens Project is ready and willing to help voters navigate the election process.”
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Contact Monica Mendoza: 636-0187
Twitter @Mendo1987
blog, City Hallways
Colorado Springs City Clerk Sarah Johnson pulls a candidate’s name out of an antique ballot box Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015, at the City Administration Building to determine the ballot positions for the April 2015 General Municipal Election. The first batch of those ballots are expected to be in the mail on Friday. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)