El Paso County will be the first local government subject to a new law about the appointment process of county commissioners this year.

The fall election ballot for Republican and unaffiliated voters in El Paso County Commission District 5 will see a vacancy race to replace Cami Bremer, who resigned from the commission earlier this year. District 5 encompasses parts of central Colorado Springs.

The two candidates on the ballot are Lauren Nelson, who was appointed by a Republican Party vacancy process and currently holds the seat, and Vickie Tonkins, a former Republican county chair and previous candidate for the seat.

Before the new rules set out in House Bill 25-1319, Nelson would have served out the rest of Bremer’s term until the end of 2026. Now, since Bremer resigned, the vacancy goes to the next odd-year coordinated election. Bremer is a Republican, so all voters registered in the same party and all unaffiliated voters can vote on her replacement.

Bremer, who was selected to be the CEO of Pikes Peak United Way last year and held both jobs until May, resigned as commissioner days after passage of the bill. She called the previous vacancy appointment a “broken system.”

The new process takes some decision power away from the El Paso County Republican Party, which usually convenes a vacancy committee to vote on candidates within the party. That process went ahead in June, with Nelson and Tonkins tied among the 40 committee members until a later tie-breaking vote.

Tonkins said that she had concerns about any increase in taxes and fees levied by the county.

“Sometimes I feel like we’re doing things that we shouldn’t,” she said.

The former El Paso County Party chair said she was also in disagreement with the majority of the commission, including Nelson, in approving the initial plan for a 5,000-home development called Flying Horse East on the northern border of Peterson Space Force Base.

“That should have been an automatic no,” she said.

Tonkins said she felt the vacancy election, due to its proximity to the end of Bremer’s term, was redundant. She said she would be running for the full term in the regular election next year, as well.

“It was totally unnecessary,” she said.

Nelson, a former member of the School District 11 Board of Education, said she would continue to support limited government and property rights if elected.

“I want to ensure that the county continues to use the taxpayer dollars to support priorities such as public safety and infrastructure,” she said.

She said as a commissioner she is interested in finding ways to shuttle some services to the nonprofit sector.

Nelson said she approved of the new vacancy process. She has said she would also run for commissioner in 2026.

“I think it’s good that it goes back to the voters,” she said.

Ballots were mailed to El Paso County voters on Oct. 10. The vacancy election deadline is the same as the coordinated election on Nov. 4.