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The city of Aspen is weighing whether to run its elections through Pitkin County, shifting its biennial March elections to join federal, state and local general elections in November.
Officials will evaluate whether transitioning the management of Aspen’s municipal elections to the Pitkin County elections division would be more efficient, removing the burden from the city clerk’s office, according to an information memo sent to the Aspen City Council. The memo identifies both operational shortcomings in the current system and benefits to maintaining local control of elections.
If officials decide they want to conduct city elections through Pitkin County, they would have to ask voters to amend the home rule charter. The memo includes a potential resolution for a ballot question to amend the charter, to be placed on the city’s March 2025 ballot, which already includes mayoral and council contests.
The city clerk’s office manages the election for about six months every two years. It begins with calls for petitions and candidate packets in November and ends with potential runoff elections in April. Coordinating the municipal election often coincides with other timely projects, such as year-end business requirements, according to the memo, which was prepared by City Clerk Nicole Henning, City Attorney Jim True and Administrative Services Director Alissa Farrell.
Municipal elections also require significant city resources. The clerk’s office worked an additional 180 hours above the standard workweek in the 22 days leading up to the March 2023 election, the memo says.
That election cost the city $69,733. The city has incurred costs of about $3,700 to $15,000 in elections coordinated with Pitkin County. The city coordinates with the county when city ballot questions are placed on the November ballot.
Coordinating future municipal elections with the county could mean access to additional resources, increased voter turnout and cost savings, the memo states. City general elections would be held each November during even-numbered years.
“Currently, the city’s election cycle occurs during the high season, including Christmas and New Year’s holidays,” the city memo states. “This results in difficulties for potential candidates and the electorate, with distractions negatively affecting the ability to pay close attention to campaigns and facts around ballot measures.”
City of Aspen voters would also have access to Ballot Trax to track their ballots online. The service is not available for city municipal elections.
But the city could still enhance its municipal elections if it decides to maintain control through the city clerk’s office. It would require expanding staff and investing in additional hardware, software and logistical components to manage elections. Additional staffing needs are still unknown but it is “in anticipation of security requirements and the probability of more resources,” Henning told the Aspen Daily News.
“Considering these operational opportunities, the city clerk’s office may further strengthen its capacity to manage municipal elections,” the memo states. “While these options may require additional resources, the potential benefits in terms of improved efficiency, accuracy and voter satisfaction are options to explore if the city maintains the election process.”
The city may look at applying for state or federal grants designed to support local election infrastructure, alleviating some financial burdens on local taxpayers if it chooses to maintain local control of elections, according to the memo.
Keeping city elections as they are also would keep local candidates and ballot questions off a potentially crowded November ballot. The March ballots separate local questions from high-profile state and national races.
But if the city and its electorate decide to transition city-run March elections to county-run November elections, it will require an eight-year transitional period through 2033.
The first county-run municipal election would take place in November 2026 if a ballot question is approved during the March 2025 election. A proposed transition plan would place the mayoral seat (that will be decided in March 2025) on the November 2026 ballot, and every two years thereafter in November. Council member seats elected in March 2025 would be up for election in November 2028 and November 2032. Council member seats elected in March 2023 would be up for election in November 2026 and November 2030.
The city also would need to determine if and how it wants to continue its runoff elections if it decides to conduct elections through the county. Under the home rule charter, if candidates do not receive a certain threshold of votes they must enter a runoff, and the candidate with the most votes in the runoff wins. Conducting municipal elections in November would put runoffs in December; current city runoffs are conducted in April.
The county and state do not conduct December runoff elections because they both use primary systems. The city would either have to abandon the runoff system, conduct the runoff election itself, participate in the county’s primary system or adopt a ranked voting system.
There has been only one instance in the city’s runoff history when the outcome of a runoff was different from initial voter results, according to the city. In the 2017 municipal election, Torre received 973 votes in the race for a city council seat and Ward Hauenstein received 895 votes. But in the runoff, Hauenstein received 932 votes and Torre received 905 votes.
City staff are requesting direction from council members on a potential resolution to submit the question to voters on the March 4 ballot. The date to finalize ballot language for the municipal election has not been set by the city clerk’s office.
Prior to the 2019 municipal election held in March, Aspen's elections were held in May. City voters approved the change to March in a 2018 referendum.