Thread by @shayshinecastle

Alright, tonight's main event: Discussing even-year elections; specifically how Boulder might make that switch.

Council last discussed this May 10. boulderbeat.news/2022/05/12/eve…

Voters will need to approve this change, of course, but the HOW could greatly impact support for it. CC needs to hammer those details out for the ballot language.

Details: documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocVie…

Basically, there are two considerations: Having elections back-to-back or extending terms for council members. (Legally, their terms cannot be shortened.)

I have Feelings about this, but I'll try to keep them to myself.

One other consideration is that the county will NOT do the direct election of mayor, via Ranked Choice Voting, AND a city council election in 2024, bc RCV is complicated and it's a presidential election year.

The mayor election is per another vote of the people. It's supposed to start in 2023.

The options for moving from odd to even years is complicated, but I'll try to spell it out for you.

Option 1
Mayor elected in 2023, 3-year term to 2026
2023 and 2025 elected officials receive three-year terms, not four
(Council did not support that in May, bc it means back-to-back council elections in 2025 and 2026)

Option 2
Mayor elected to 3-year term in 2023 (to 2026)
Extend terms of council members from 2025 to 2026
No election in 2025
5-year terms for members elected in 2023

Option 3
Extend terms of all 9 council members by one year
No direct mayor election until 2024
Even-year elections start in 2024
(Again, this is not feasible for the county)

“Our office strongly opposes trying to consolidate elections and run a first ever ranked choice election in 2024," BoCo Clerk and Recorder wrote to council

Option 4
Extend terms of all 9 council members
Change first directly elected mayor to 2026
Even-year elections start in 2024

I think I've got that all correct. It's a whole thing.

Why is this a thing? Because participation increases so much in even years: On average, 17,000 more people vote *on local ballot measures* in even years, according to an analysis of 10 years of election data in BoCo.

So any arguments about local issues getting lost in the shuffle... not true. There are other arguments, but that one ain't it.

Other places have seen similar gains, but there's nothing as good as local data.

Molly Fitzpatrick, BoCo Clerk + Recorder: We do not make changes in presidential election years, bc of the risk that it introduces.

Fitzpatrick: "The idea of running a ranked choice voting election in 2023, the first in Colorado, in a presidential election year, does not set our office up for success."

"It would not be appropriate, given the type of year it's going to be," she says. "We need that ramp and runway" and we won't have it if we move to 2024.

"Our preference is to stay the course," Fitzpatrick says, and do the RCV election in 2023 — not move it to 2026, as was one of the suggestions. "There's a lot of benefit to Boulder County being the first. We like the idea of leading."

But most of all we like the idea of continuing with the plans that were laid out and the resources we have, Fitzpatrick says.

Fitzpatrick: Odd years are best, but even years without presidential elections are better than prez ones, bc the presidential primary "completely knocks us out."

Speer: The state might provide more resources (including audit software) in the future. Can you talk about that?
Fitzpatrick: The state will have that in 2025. "We will have a way to audit it, but it won't be the way we audit other elections."

Similar standards, though.

"We're not sure what the cost will look like yet," Fitzpatrick says. The city will pay that cost, again as approved by voters.

Not for the software specifically, but for other election costs..... Benjamin: The state will amortize the cost across whatever counties are using RCV.

Fitzpatrick: Based on the number of voters in the jurisdictions.

Speer: Is three local elections in 4 years a lot? Or should we consider that option?

Fitzpatrick; "I haven't contemplated that in this discussion. It's hard for me to say."

Friend: Can we ask voters a two-part question — Do you want to move to even-year elections and then the second part, which is how?

"Idk that we're the most unbiased people to choose which option to give to voters," Friend said, since the options include extending our terms.

Kathy Haddock: We really can't do options. We have to do "for or against" questions. But we can put on option a and option b.

Benjamin: 23 cities have done this in recent years. Half did it by ordinance and half put it on the ballot and did so by extending the terms of city council members.

"Voters don't seem to have much of an issue with that," Benjamin says.

Back to Friend's point, the way the options can be on the ballot is to ask: 'Do you want to move to even-year elections this way,' and, 'Do you want to move to even-year elections this way' — 2 separate measures and the one with the most votes wins.

Speer: "It is weird, especially in these times," to ask voters to advance something that extends our terms.

But "the majority of cities" that moved to even-year elections have done this, and quickly. Reads ballot language from Pasadena.

I have Very Strong Feelings about extending the terms of council members, but I am willing to admit that perhaps I am wrong. If voters elsewhere have Ok'ed it, maybe it's not that big a deal. But it makes me v uncomfortable.

Friend, too: I have strong feelings about another year on my term. And giving options doesn't get at the issue of bias.

Fitzpatrick: What will happen to ballot questions if only council elections move to even years? What's your intention?

Brockett: They aren't legally affected by this, though there might be a strong preference for even years.

Friend: Does the county never run odd-year ballot measures? Their elected officials are elected in even years?

Fitpatrick stumbles a bit with this question, but basically she says most of their stuff is "on the same ballot" in the same years.

Superior ran ballot measures every year, not just with candidate elections, Haddock says. They do even-year council elections. (She worked there for 18 years before coming to Boulder)

Yates: We should not extend anyone's term. That lowers your chances of support and not everyone here might want an extra year. We might have resignations.

It's "bad optics" to ask voters to give some or all of those sitting on council an extra year of term, Yates says, especially when some of us don't want an extra term.

Again, a majority of council has already rejected this. But they'll take another straw poll on it.

So there's that option
- then the option that extends the terms of only 4 council members, those with terms expiring in 2025, and first even-year election is in 2026,
- AND extending all the terms by one year and moving RCV mayoral election to 2026

And maybe Friend's proposal to put two options on the ballot so voters can decide.

Wallach: "I can tell you now, I will not have my term extended. I have no intention of serving until 2026. I don't think I'm obligated to do so." Build that into your plans.

We've had resignations before. What happens is that the regular seats get filled by the top vote-getters, then the next highest vote-getter fills the remaining term.

Brockett: "I'm not comfortable being the final decision-maker on this." Wants to give voters options.

"Occam's Razor is a good rule to use in this situation, Folkerts says: The simplest option is often the best." she supports the option to extend all terms by one year and move RCV of the mayor to 2026.

Speer supports this, too.

I think this means even-year elections will start in 2024. With the other option, they wouldn't start until 2026. But I'm not sure. This is confusing.

Brockett also supports the extend-everyone's-terms thing. "Subject all of us equally to the pain if the measure is successful," he says.

Straw poll time

That option gets majority support. So that's what will be on the ballot this fall.

Second half of this discussion: People can't run for council and mayor at the same time (They're not allowed per city elex rules) BUT can sitting council members run for mayor without resigning?

Speer: I think it makes sense to have people with experience run for mayor. Joseph concurs.

Wallach: One of the worst things about national politics is people running for higher office from a soft seat.

"We lose experience every election cycle, and amazingly we continue to move forward and prosper," Wallach says.

We also have our first Wallach Sigh of the night. It's a heavy one, so we're putting the meter at 1.7

Voters, too, will decide this. Council is just helping with the language. It was supposed to be included in the 2020 ballot measure that OK'd direct election of mayor, but it got left out.

Majority support of council is to allow sitting council members to run for mayor without resigning their seats. So THAT will be on your ballot, too, this fall.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you!