City Election 2023: How do I vote?
What your ballot will look like, and more.
Welcome back. Last week, I introduced you to this project reporting on and analyzing the April 4 municipal election in Colorado Springs.
Since the inaugural edition, I’ve been interviewing mayoral candidates, getting up to speed on who they are, what they’re like, and what they want for this city. I’ll have an explainer on them soon as I make my way through all 12 (sheesh) candidates. We’ve got options, people.
In this edition, I’m going to break down how to vote, because, frankly, I haven’t found the Secretary of State office website all that user-friendly.
The city clerk will be mailing ballots to registered, active voters by March 10, but you can register to vote all the way up until Election Day. (Shoutout to Colorado for letting us vote by mail. We’re one of eight, baby!)
If the details of voting below look daunting, just click this link to register.
So, how do you register?
First thing’s first, let’s find out if you’re a registered, active voter. You can do that by checking your voting status on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website. Click the “find my registration” link. If you’ve ever registered to vote here in Colorado, it will pop up with your profile. Make sure your ballot status is active. If it’s not, you won’t get a ballot in the mail.
Not registered? Here are a few ways to get yourself on the rolls:
Register online at www.GoVoteColorado.gov and click the “yes, register online” button. You’ll need the last four digits of your SSN or OR an active state-issued ID card.
Register in-person. You can register
At a DMV
At an armed forces recruitment office
At any voter service or polling location. Here is a list of all the VSPCs in El Paso County that were open during the 2022 general election.
Do you have an inactive ballot? If your ballot is inactive, you are statistically way less likely to vote. In fact, in 2014, around 650,000 ballots were inactive out of about three million total registered voters, with inactive voters being “disproportionately young” and “unaffiliated,” according to a 2016 article in The Colorado Independent.
You’ll have to update your information to re-activate it. (Apparently, mine was inactive until this morning, so I just went through this process: Go to “find my registration,” enter your information, then click “edit.”) You may need to update your address or other old information. My status now appears as “active.”
What does a ballot even look like? Click here to see the full ballot. For all you first-time voters, I’ve attached a little sneak peek of how the mayoral candidates will appear on the ballot. City Clerk Sarah Johnson conducted a “random drawing” of names to decide what order they’ll appear.
Now, let’s get you up to speed on the election, candidates, or issues facing the city this week
👑 Outgoing mayor John Suthers has endorsed Wayne Williams to replace him. Reporter Pam Zubeck of Sixty35 Media reported this week that TV ads featuring Suthers “anointing Williams as his preference to succeed him” are running, and that his endorsement was “long expected.”
❓“Now that Suthers, who was long expected to endorse Williams, has made his choice publicly known, voters might be wondering who former City Councilor Richard Skorman will endorse,” Zubeck also reported. “It’s worth noting that when Skorman ran for mayor in 2011, he got more votes than Steve Bach, but lost to Bach in the runoff. The point is, Skorman’s preference could carry weight with voters. We’ll bring you that news when it happens.”
🎙 This will be a podcast-y race! The Gazette has a podcast tracking the mayoral election called COS’23. Candidates have also reported being interviewed by Sixty35 Media for a podcast series, and the Colorado Springs city government has a podcast called “Behind the Springs,” where they interviewed the city clerk about important election details on episode 105. I plan on doing some of my own audio reporting throughout this process, so stay tuned.
💰 The Gazette has rounded up the latest campaign finance reports, showing “where the money is flowing” in the election.
📋 The Colorado Springs Gazette has a brief profile on all 12 mayoral candidates.
💥 Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy, two columnists for The Gazette who taught political science at Colorado College, called the upcoming mayor contest an “enormously important election.” Find out why here.
👀 Colorado Springs was among nine cities reported to have “reached record homicides in 2022 as staffing shortages plagued police departments,” according to Fox News.
🏗 “Citywide planning doesn’t always address the needs of every neighborhood, so Colorado Springs intends to create a dozen community plans to get viewpoints from people all over town,” KRCC reported this week. “The process is an offshoot of the city’s comprehensive master plan, PlanCOS, which calls for community plans to be ‘organized around the six Vision Themes which make up PlanCOS—Vibrant Neighborhoods, Unique Places, Renowned Culture, Strong Connections, Thriving Economy, and Majestic Landscapes.’”
🚰 “The battle over a Colorado Springs ordinance that pit the dueling challenges of drought and affordable housing against each other came to a close Tuesday, after a rare third vote,” The Gazette reported. “Colorado Springs City Council again approved the highly controversial water rule on a 5-4 vote following months of fraught meetings where Mayor John Suthers, developers and others made passionate arguments over the rule that some say is needed in light of a megadrought on the Colorado River and others say will push up the price of housing.”
🆕 “The City of Colorado Springs and the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce & Economic Development Corporation (Chamber & EDC) has announced a launch event for a new system to help local entrepreneurs and event organizers navigate city processes,” Fox21 reported.
❤️ Council had a Valentine's Day gift to residents. On Feb. 14, the council approved “the first comprehensive update of the City’s zoning and subdivision ordinance in several decades. A part of the RetoolCOS project, the new Unified Development Code creates a modern and more user-friendly approach to zoning and subdivision regulations to fit the needs of the City as directed by PlanCOS, the 2019 Council-adopted comprehensive plan.”
The CC City Election Reporting Project is a student-faculty collaboration by Colorado College senior Amelia Allen. Colorado College Journalism Institute Co-director Corey Hutchins, is advising the project. This newsletter seeks to provide reporting about the April 4, 2023 city election in a way that is relevant to the campus and broader Springs community.
📬 Enter your email address to subscribe and get the newsletter in your inbox each time it comes out. You can reach me with questions, feedback, or news tips by email at ameliasallen8 [at] gmail [dot] com.