If you haven’t received your mail-in ballot by now, get in touch with the Secretary of State’s office (303-894-2200, or follow this link). If you have your ballot and want to review the mail-in and dropoff procedures, click here.
Your ballot will include races for Denver Public Schools Board of Education, depending on which DPS director district you reside within. It will also include a City-wide Initiated Ordinance (I-300) question on Auto Impoundment. Judy voted with a 10-1 majority earlier this month to issue a Council proclamation opposing Initiative 300. The proclamation argues that I-300 ties the hands of police officers. I-300 removes the right of officers to use discretion to determine when towing a vehicle is appropriate for public safety — we’ve seen in the past that this can be problematic.
As an interesting side note to this election, it will feature the inaugural class of the groundbreaking Colorado Elections Fellows Program. Ten student fellows will be trained to serve as poll workers, and will recruit other students to serve as poll workers in future elections. The Denver Elections Division will provide training materials and other resources to help the fellows train other student poll workers on their campuses. The Colorado Campus Compact at Regis University was one of 13 organizations in the United States to receive grant funds from the federal Election Assistance Commission to recruit college students to serve as poll workers during the 2009 and 2010 election cycles.
I never received my ballot, despite being registered and despite having voted in every Denver election for the past ten years. I faxed in a duplicate ballot request today. I hope my missing ballot has nothing to do with the pro-Initiative 300 comments I left on Huff Post and elsewhere.