Welcome back to this monthly meeting of the Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee of Denver City Council.

Thanks for joining us for the discussion.

The governance and intergovernmental relations committee starts now.

May 19th, Tuesday, May 19th.

You have reached the Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee of the Denver City Council.

My name is Paul Cashman.

I uh represent South Denver District 6 and have the pleasure of serving as vice chair on this committee.

We have a couple of items on the agenda.

We'll start uh with a uh action item for an ordinance submitting to a vote of qualified and registered electors of the city and county of Denver and a special municipal election on November 3rd will be presented by my colleagues, uh committee chair uh Sawyer and Councilwoman uh Parity.

And then that'll be followed by a briefing by our uh clerk and recorder.

And before we get started on the agenda, let's go with uh introductions of members of council, starting on my left with the esteemed councilwoman.

Good morning, everyone.

Serena Gonzalez Gutierrez, one of the council members at large.

Good morning, Amanda Sanovo, Northwest Denver District 1.

Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District Four.

Good morning, Amanda Surger, District Five.

Sarah Hardy, or other councilmember at large.

Jamie Torres, West Denver District 3.

Thank you.

And I believe Councilman Flynn, are you joining us online?

There you go.

Right now, in Southwest Denver's District 2.

Good deal.

Well, I will turn the floor over.

Uh Councilwoman Sore.

Are you going to uh facilitate this uh presentation?

I guess I will drive.

Um, well, good morning, everyone.

Thank you so much.

Councilwoman Parity and I are here today with the auditor's office in Denver Labor to have a conversation about a charter change amendment that we would like to send to the ballot for the voters to vote on in November.

Um before we get started, do you want to introduce yourselves?

Sure.

Uh Tim O'Brien, Denver Auditor.

Matt Fitzmauer, Executive Director of Denver Labor in the Auditor's Office.

Uh, fantastic.

So we have a quick presentation.

Um, just talk a little bit about the background, our proposed clarification why we're sending this to the ballot and then answer any questions that you have.

Um, so as background, the auditor's office has enforced prevailing wage since 1950, as we just had a recent conversation about.

Um, Denver voters in 2006 created the independent auditor's office.

Um, and so then since 2016, we've made significant updates to the auditors' ability to enforce all of our different wage areas.

That is minimum wage, prevailing wage, and wage theft.

And I will just say the auditor's office and Denver Labor do an amazing job of this.

Um, where did our.

There we go.

That was amazing, you guys.

That's perfect timing with Denver.

That ladies and gentlemen, the road moment.

Um so let's talk prevailing wage first.

We have had a lot of conversation about this recently as we just recently updated to clarify our prevailing wage document uh and our prevailing wage ordinance.

So the 2016 update um to the prevailing wage ordinance from 1950, uh improved processes, removed some outdated things, um, and then clarified the scope of prevailing wage.

Um, and then in 2023, August of 2023, you may recall we voted um on just realigning the prevailing wage enforcement to streamline the processes.

So we moved um prevailing wage out of HR and into Denver Labor.

Um, and the way that worked is the city agreed to create a position, an independent position within Denver Labor that is our prevailing wage administrator position.

Um, and that position's job is to focus on prevailing wage, review um contracts for prevailing wage, update prevailing wages accordingly with market surveys that come from the federal government, all of those different kinds of things.

So the auditor's office has the authority to issue interpretations and clarifications on prevailing wage and to update those, as I mentioned, uh wage rates.

Um, and we are very lucky we have a great prevailing wage administrator who does those things.

Um let's talk minimum wage now.

So, minimum wage um was uh it was a bill at the state that changed the law because previously the entire state of Colorado was under the same minimum wage, and so the state legislature in 2019 changed the law to allow municipalities and local governments to set our own minimum wages.

Now, as we know, because we have there's been a lot of background conversation about the fact that when the state did this, they did not make that same change to the TIP credit, and that has been a little bit of a challenge.

So that is a whole thing I am not getting into here, but it you know, you all know what I'm talking about.

Um, what is happening with the slideshow?

I'm sure if you can get the slideshow.

Could you pull the slide back up, please?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, so on January 1st, 2020, we um in the city started enforcing our own Denver minimum wage, and this is done in Denver labor in the auditor's office.

Um in 2022, the auditor's office gained authority to conduct uh agency initiated investigations into certain high-risk industries.

Um that is, for example, you know, bars and restaurants, construction, um, nail salons, uh, service industry kind of jobs where we see our lowest wage workers are being taken advantage of most frequently.

Um, since 2020, the auditor's office has um, you know, worked with tens of thousands of workers to enforce their rights.

Um tell me, do you guys have a count off the top of your hand of how many millions of dollars we have recovered?

So I can tell you that in the last decade, I think at least 10 million dollars and enforce the rights of more than 15,000 workers.

Amazing.

Um, and then finally, wage theft.

So in January 2023, City Council passed the civil wage theft ordinance.

Oh, it's on the next slide.

All right, there we go.

Good job, guys.

Um, which expanded the auditors' enforcement powers.

Um, I was really honored to co-sponsor this bill with council members Torres and Gilmore.

Um, it took us four years to write this law.

It was a lot of work, it was a lot of conversation, but it is a very strong law.

It is um it has changed the lives of workers in Denver significantly, and that is through the work of Denver Labor because they are our enforcement arm.

Um then in 2024, the audit we granted the auditor's office subpoena power to help with this wage enforcement, wage theft enforcement.

Um, and as we just said, over the last decade, um, it's about 10 million dollars and more than 15,000 workers that have been impacted.

Um, I will just say uh so this has been happening since 1950.

Denver labor has existed.

This is nothing new.

City council has repeatedly uh grown and expanded the auditor's office authority to conduct these wage-related investigations because we know, and it's one of our uh priorities as a council to ensure that wage theft and wage violations are not being uh that are not happening in the city of Denver.

And the reason for this is because the best way to get people out of poverty, as I always say, is to pay them, right?

And um that is not something that the city has a piece of except for the prevailing wage part, um, but it is something I think that is incredibly important because our values are to help support our community, and we do that through our partnership with Denver Labor.

So the updates to this charter language are pretty straightforward.

Um, it just reflects that the auditor's office um and their long history of wage enforcement are you know have happened and we would like it to continue to happen, that the office is uh enforcing wage theft, worker protections, workplace rights, um, as required by ordinance.

So I will say, um, just to be very clear, what the charter says is that the auditor's office um is required to do what the auditor's office is required to do, and also anything else as determined via ordinance by city council.

And so um that is what the auditor's office does.

Uh they have done it since 1950, but um they it that authority is given to them via city council via the ordinances that we vote on that clearly say this is something we are handing over to the auditor's office to enforce for us.

Um, and so what we'd like to do is we'd like to put in the charter and just make that clear.

Before we get started, I want to see if my co-sponsor has any thoughts, and then I want to see if you guys have any thoughts as well.

I have just a quick thought, which is that um we're essentially pulling this out um of the you know, council can give the auditor other duties clause, which is where it has always been.

Um, just because it's become such a big part of the work, it feels like it sort of deserves the call out um in the charter as a specific area.

Um, but it's you know, it's sort of a um, it's more of a recognition of the work um than something that we need to do for any reason other than that.

And so I think it's good for the charter to um to sort of like encompass the full scope of what agencies do.

Um and in a way you could view that part of the auditor's authority clause that says that you know council can assign other not inconsistent duties by ordinance as um a place for us to stick kind of pilot programs, and this is well beyond a pilot at this point, so thank you.

Yeah, great.

Anything you guys want to add?

No, I I agree with uh the way you've described it, and I think it it belongs in the charter.

Matt, anything from your side?

Uh just to say that as someone who only really has a couple of interests, one of them being wage enforcement.

It's been really great to see how you all have grown this work over the years.

Awesome.

Thank you.

All right, questions.

Well, we've got public comment.

When someone says they only have a couple of interests in name names one, what's the other one?

Oh, I know.

The other one is this beautiful wife Chelsea.

Sorry.

I'm right.

My beautiful wife Chelsea.

Women's soccer.

Fair.

Thank you for that.

Appreciate that.

And yes, uh, Madam Chair, we do have uh public comment.

We have one person signed up today.

Uh, is Jesse Paris uh on line, sir?

Yes, Jesse, go ahead.

There you are.

There I am.

Good morning, Cashman.

Council.

Um, Royal Rise and helping Malcolm X today to the council, city council, those watching at home.

My name is Jessica Sean Parrison.

I'm our president for Black Star Action Movement for Self-Defense, positive action commercial social change, as well as the Unity Party of Colorado, the Northeast General Residence Council, frontline black news, so Bacchus Black Dismiss enhance.

And our reside at the road to be able to festive legacy loss.

And Councilman Darrell Wassa's district of district nine, the fine district nine, the historically black district known as fire points, the Harlem of the West.

And I am a candidate on the ballot for House District 8.

The election is in November.

Um I wanted to ask the auditor a few questions in regards to their enforcement powers.

Is this amendment going to add on to their enforcement powers already?

Because that would be great.

The fraternal order of police.

Um just uh a variety of services um that the city provides.

Because our question where our money is going, especially with this current administration under Johnson, so if the auditor or the um that's a little could answer those questions, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you.

Well, that concludes our public comment session.

Um questions from members of council.

I've got uh councilwoman Torres.

Oh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, just looking at the proposed um language being added, um, the auditor shall enforce wage worker protection and workplace rights as the council by ordinance may require.

Um, apart from um the wage items that I'm familiar with.

Are there any other or are you predicting any other um worker protection, workplace rights um kind of under your authority, or are there already things that you enforce other than wage protection?

Prevailing wage, minimum wage, and wage theft are really what we enforce.

And Davis Bacon comes in there just because it serves a lot of overlap.

Okay, so yes, and then um part and parcel of a lot of that is anti-retaliation work.

Okay.

And so that language is intended to encompass the anti-retaliation authority you've already given us, as well as the unfair labor practice enforcement authority you gave us recently.

Got it.

Thank you for that.

Thanks, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Uh Council Pro Tem Romero Campbell.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh this is just, again, if I get this right, clarifying what the scope is.

So we don't anticipate any, it's like what is already happening, just clarifying within language.

So we don't anticipate that there would be any budget changes that would be related to this as well.

No, I mean, I think there's probably some budget conversation going on right now.

Um, but no, there's this is a this is budget neutral.

Um, really, Councilman Parity and I just feel really strongly that the um auditor's office has been doing this since 1950.

Um they have been very successful at it, they are an integral part of our city in supporting our lowest wage workers in particular, and um it is important to us that we clarify that they can do this in the charter, as opposed to just the charter saying whatever city council makes you do, you do, um, because this is such an integral piece to our city, to our values, and to what the auditor's office already does that we want to um put it in the charter.

Yeah, it's a bit of a future generations memo, but it shouldn't change anything for the time being.

Okay, um, and then and maybe it just maybe you covered it or are there things that we just don't see, but are there additional barriers that that you are facing to be able to enforce this?

I don't think so.

Uh no, except for the capacity.

I was just gonna say the volume of wage left and retaliation that occurs is a barrier to being after go after a barrier to being able to go after all of it.

Yes, and it's kind of the opposite of what you just said.

And so we've got some exciting revenue neutral, actually.

I think they will ultimately be revenue generating approaches we're taking to try to expand our authority without adding more staff.

Are we able to share some of those now or I talk to you offline?

Okay, yeah, you can that'd be great.

No, I just I just wonder like are there additional things that we are seeing from the state that are preventing you from being able to execute on this.

Anything else that's just preventing us from moving forward.

Uh I would mention that we had a study done by Rutgers University a few years ago that uh identified in the metropolitan area as probably a hundred million dollars a year in wage theft.

From the you know, information we showed you, we've collected 10 million dollars that includes prevailing wage and minimum wage.

Um there's a lot more work that we could do with more resources.

We have to address that at a later time.

Okay, thank you.

Um I don't have any other questions, but thank you to the sponsors for bringing this forward.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, thank you to the sponsors, and thank you, auditor, and thank you, Matt.

Um, this is something.

Um I read a book and by Brene Brown, and there's a quote called Clear's Kind.

And what does that look like in leadership?

And when we add something to the charter, it's very clear to the Denver residents as like the spine of what we do, right?

I always think of the charter as like the backbone because it can only be changed by the people, the voters at Denver, and so you're codifying it in a very different way than in ordinance where 13 people and a mayor who has to sign off on it can change things, and I think that this provides that type of clarity and that that quote keeps playing in my head, clear is kind by us sending this to the voters in November and ultimately hoping that they approve it.

I can say that because it hasn't been sent there yet.

So I can I can um not campaigning for it because it's not there yet.

Um but it does create clarity, and so as what I've learned over the 14 years of being here is we have different interpretations on our ordinances, and new lawyers come in and they have um provide opinions on pieces of um law or our ordinances, and um it's challenging when you get different interpretations.

I've been here for 14 years, and so I've gotten several different interpretations.

Um, that comes to mind is Dottie and right-of-way and who's responsible and when you're responsible for building sidewalks and how that gets done, and the amount it used to be amount of permits, and then it changed, and different opinion came out by a different attorney.

So um just appreciate um pushing this forward to the vote of the uh the in November, and I'll absolutely be um sponsoring or not sponsoring it, but supporting it now, and then in my free time when it makes it to the ballot, I also will be um telling people informing them because that's also a separate portion of getting something to the ballot is then you have to do provide clarity around it, and it's hard because we can't have that at this table anymore once it goes past the legislative process.

So just saying publicly, how can I help in the future?

Um, because this is a big piece, um, provides that type of clarity.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Any further questions from members of council?

Uh seeing none.

Can we get a motion to move this forward to moved by council?

Council Torres.

Seconded by uh Councilman Gonzalez Guterres.

Uh I assume we have uh thumbs up all around, please.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh guys, excuse me, the auditor's office.

We will see you in council.

This committee.

And uh we'll do a transition to the clerk's office.

Oh I have a only two afternoon.

Committee chair, would you like to uh take your seat?

I mean, would you like to on the rest of committee?

You're welcome to.

I'll let you take a look at the weekends.

So I get to sort of cross anywhere, right?

I think I'm crazy about that.

Maybe I don't know what I was, but I treated Senate members on the at one point.

Um, I'm moving.

Okay.

And whoever wants to drive, you can either committee.

Oh, yeah.

I'm not sure.

Except for maybe.

Yeah, but we want to do that.

Oh no, okay.

Thank you.

I can just pass it down.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Now we have briefing from the clerk's office.

Um, I asked them to join us today because we have an election coming up, our primary election.

Um ballots will be dropping soon.

I'm sure that they will give us more specifics on all of that.

But um I think we can all agree that our election system um is under threat.

And I will tell you, my kids said to me the other day, uh, mom, you got married, divorce now, but I did get married at one time.

You changed your name.

Um, are you going to be able to vote in the primary election?

And my kids are in high school, they're juniors and seniors.

Um, and so I thought that that was really startling.

And um I wanted to give our clerk's office an opportunity to come and um talk to the public about this and really clarify what is going on with our elections.

What should we expect?

Um, am I gonna be able to vote because I changed my last name years ago when I got married?

Um, and all of those different kinds of things that we know that the public is concerned about, and there has been a lot of rumor and um a lack of clarity around this.

So I really appreciate you all being here.

Thank you for coming.

And uh please introduce yourselves and take it away.

Thank you.

Uh Madam Chairman Paul Lopez, I serve as the clerk and recorder for the city and county of Denver, and I'll have my Davidson director of elections for the city and county of Denver.

Sabrina Alley, I'm the deputy clerk and recorder for this, anyway of Denver.

Good.

Well, um, I could answer that question right away, uh, councilwoman, and that is uh uh yes, you are gonna be able to vote.

And that's because the Constitution's Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1, which basically dictates the time and manner of the election, is determined by the states and not the federal government.

The SAVE Act is not a thing.

It uh died.

Um it was uh upon arrival, and the MASA Act is not moving forward, which would kind of put us back to uh 1950s in terms of having to go back to our precincts to vote and to be able to do things like that.

It would eliminate mail ballots, it would only allow absentee ballots and emergency cases, those things are dead at the uh at the federal level.

Um the only way that those would change is if they had a majority that sent that was voted on by Congress and sent to the president for a uh for a signature.

The good thing is that's not happening.

So you can let them know, rest assured that that's that you're gonna be able to vote.

Um we deal with there's a lot of uh scenarios that we'll go through and that's me with the haircut.

I'm sorry, you can move that forward.

Um, we get we get a lot of these questions, and we get a lot of what what if, what happens if the good thing is that you can rest assured that we do a lot of tabletop exercises and forgive the the the description, but they're war games.

We put our team together with very many different uh individuals from across the city, and we play scenarios.

What happens if uh we go to all mail uh um eliminate mail in ballots?

What happens if you know uh ice is out a at a vote center?

What happens if a squirrel hits a transistor and blows out of a VSPC, which has happened, um all those scenarios we prepare for.

Huh?

What's a VS PC?

I'm so sorry.

Uh, VSPC is nerd speak for vote center, um voter service and polling center.

Our vote centers are polling our poll service centers, it's like coming downtown.

Uh, you'd be able to request a ballot, change affiliation, do all kinds of stuff uh like you would downtown at a vote center.

It's not just a place to vote, it's a place that you can actually uh get your business done as a voter if you if need be.

Um let's start with this.

So uh state primary 2026 by the numbers.

Our total registered active voters right now 476,726.

We keep seeing more and more and more registrations pop up.

Know that these are active voters, these are not the total voter universe.

Total voter universe is north of what 524 million uh million, 524,000.

So and if you want to briefly describe active voters, because I love the way you describe it, Todd.

Sure.

An active voter simply is someone who's going to get a mail ballot.

They have either updated their record since the last election or they voted in the last election.

All of those people will get a mail ballot automatically.

If we've had return mail from a voter, they become inactive.

And if they would like a ballot, they have to visit a vote center.

And that's because of the rule that we do not forward any ballots to other addresses, they come right back to us.

So there's no that the whole worry that, well, I have somebody else's ballot, I can vote it, you cannot.

Um we signature verify that.

You attempt to do so, it's a felony.

We turn that over to the DA.

Two, um, unless that happens, it's dead, but they sent it back to us, um, and then we uh we ping it, if it happens again multiple times, we check with Eric, which is our national database and partners on on the national and federal level um to see if that voter has moved or anything like that.

If it's a question, they'd be come off of the rolls, but it takes a lot to do that.

Um the prep for total turnout is about 40 percent, is what we're preparing for.

194,000 uh voters turning out um for the primary.

Uh, 17 vote service and polling centers is what we have uh for the for the primary election.

We are now at box number 48.

We have 24-7, uh 48, 24-7 boxes uh all around the city.

Um, and also we were gonna be we're gonna be hiring 600 election judges for this uh primary election.

I want to make it clear, our election judges are not volunteer, they're hired.

Do you have a question, Kath?

Oh, wait till we'll see questions at the end.

Okay.

Uh state primary, citywide turnout map.

Uh I've sent you versions of this before, and it is the same map that you always see, unfortunately.

It is uh the inverted L.

And it is, I I like to say that this is the cause of the inverted L.

Low propensity turnout, uh, does nothing to help a precinct.

As a former councilman, I I know that you can fight and scratch until your nails are gone, unless you have a high voter propensity to turn out precincts.

They don't fear what you say.

Um, and I think that's really important.

It it demonstrates people power, it demonstrates people at the table and it strengthens you as representatives of those of those precincts and those districts.

I think you know, when we look at high turnout, we look at voter propensity, you know, it also determines on what's on the ballot as well too.

When you know, when we talk turnout, it is are the voters excited, are they motivated?

Is there something that is pushing them to get out?

Are they being engaged either on the door by mail by phone?

Are they being engaged to get out?

One of our conversations with what Sun Valley is one of our precincts that we always look at, that you know we're always focused on, but it's always troubling because of the fact that it's very low turnout.

We go to those neighborhoods, other than their city councilwoman.

They don't they don't see anybody else, nobody contacts them, nobody goes door to door.

And I have to give props to the city council because she's right here, and I think part of that is you know keeping them engaged.

But at the end of the day, are is money being spent in that precinct?

Are they knocking on doors in that precinct?

Are they engaging?

So one of those the feedback was we never hear from anybody when it comes to these major elections, and two, we don't see anybody.

Right?

So part of that is who are they voting for and why, and all the other part of it is who's asking, who's pushing?

Uh historic primary turnout percentage.

So it ebbs and flows with the primary.

Uh we've only had a primary since uh an elected primary like this since 2020, or 2019, sorry.

Um, when you see the uh the primary turnout, it ebbs and flows, depends on what's on the ballot.

2020 was an exceptional year for turnout in this city.

A lot of it had to do with the pandemic, a lot of it had to do with folks like Jimmy Fallon and late night hosts and all these other folks in mainstream media saying be an election judge, vote early, carrying that message and really pushing that out.

Right?

A lot of it had to do with our model as well, too, the fact that it is a it was a pandemic proof way to vote.

And I want to talk about an ice pen, ice uh uh proof way to vote, right?

Our harassment proof uh way to vote, and it's those drop boxes.

So we saw a surge in our drop boxes usage, and also we also increased the number of drop boxes that people can use across the city.

That's why you see that 2020 surge.

Um, so it is definitely an anomaly, and when you look at it moving forward, uh you'll see this.

Um state primary election versus general election in each each year, right?

86% was the second highest turnout in our history, and that was compared to Denver when we only had like 15 people.

Um we only had like maybe 300,000 at the time, um, when we had 91%.

Then you look at 2020, you see that tick up, and then that 2024.

2024 was rather disappointing compared to 2020.

Um 11% of people chose not to turn in their ballots locally.

37% of people around the country chose to sit it out.

It is apathy that is our enemy, and it's really, really important that we make sure that people understand that.

Um, go back.

Those yard signs are amazing, and we had those printed for two reasons.

One, we wanted to make sure that when we talk about voting, when we talk about democracy, it's not just what happens one day or two days out of the year, we say 44 because you have actually 44 days to vote if you have a two election year.

What is the role of democracy for folks who not are not able to vote?

Right?

Because of status issues, because of they're not old enough yet, they still have an opportunity to participate.

There's a lot of different ways people can participate, participating in campaigns, going door knocking, urging other people to vote.

Simply putting a sign in their window that urges their fellow neighbors to vote is important.

It is action, it's part of democracy.

So what we we have those signs available.

We're gonna print them again for you all.

I appreciate some of you that have been using them.

I really really appreciate that.

Those those hang out in apartment windows for a long time, and it sends a really strong message.

And when folks approach us, either in the community or where we're out talking to folks, they say, what can we do?

All right, here you go.

Here's a sign.

If it looks familiar, it's a it's a it's a hat tip to the 1960s to the vote voting rights movement.

That's where the design comes from, and it's a little bit of uh recognition over the voting rights act, spirit of the voting rights act.

So, next one.

What's on the ballot?

Congressional offices, U.S.

Senate seat, congressional house seats, statewide offices.

Everybody and their mother is on this ballot.

Um regional offices, let's not forget the state uh board of regents, the RTD board of directors.

This is gonna be what a two-page ballot, we're probably thinking.

Oh no, this one is uh one-page ballot.

November, we can't tell you yet.

Um gone are the days I think that we saw a two-page ballot in November.

That's how long these ballots are getting.

It is not the ballot length that turns people off, it is what's on the ballot.

And I want to make that clear, okay.

Um, overview for 2026 elections.

So Tuesday, June 30th, we are E-42.

Um, primary election day ballots must be in the possession of the cook and recorder by 7 p.m.

There's some confusion out there, especially with the the stuff that's being talked about at the USBS level with the changing of time stamping with uh with with uh with the USPS on the federal.

That does not apply to Colorado.

Colorado law says it must be your ballot must be in the possession of the click and recorder by 7 p.m.

If it's in a mail ballot box, uh uh, it's not gonna work.

It has to be in our possession.

In our possession means in a drop box, in a vote center, or in our custody downtown.

So by 7 p.m.

That's why those drop boxes are important.

It's important for folks to know that no postage is necessary for that as well, too.

Unaffiliated voters are 49.9% of Denver active voters.

That is huge, it's a surge.

And it is uh telling that they will receive two primary ballots and they can vote on one ballot to cast in each primary election.

We've been taking this show on the road, we've been working the whole year uh preparing for this election so that we don't repeat what 612 voters did in this last election, which was turn in both ballots.

If you are unaffiliated, and for this is for folks that are that are home and not independent, independent is an actual party.

If you are unaffiliated, not affiliated with either any party whatsoever, you'll receive those two ballots.

Democratic, which is blue, Republican, which is red, fill out one or the other, do not fill out both and send them back.

Okay.

Um state law doesn't allow us to uh count those.

Uh Tuesday, November 3rd is the Super Bowl, ladies and gentlemen.

Um that's general election day.

This is the big one.

This is the one that we are preparing for one of the highest turnouts we've seen for a midterm general election.

Right?

And we are pulling, we are making sure that folks have absolute access.

And we'll talk about some of these access issues that we have again by 7 p.m.

Uh for the uh primary.

It's important to understand that this time around the libertarian and unity party are getting ballots.

The two minor these two minor parties will be receiving ballots.

Normally it's only been unaffiliated, Democrats, and Republicans.

Those are the two newbies on it.

Uh let's talk state primary election trends.

Um almost all votes are cast by mail ballot drop box during primary elections.

Uh drop box ballots and mail ballots represent 100% of votes cast in the following primary elections.

The 2024 primary, 99% uh were cast by mail and drop box, 22 was 98, 2020 was 20.

9% of ballots are sent back by the mail.

The majority of folks that are voting are using our drop box, and that number keeps surging.

Except the fact that the last time around, we only had we had 11% of people actually show up in person, which was double of what we had.

In the last coordinated election, we had 6% show up in person.

Normally that number is one or two percent, right?

So there is a surge of folks who are coming in person to vote.

If you want to go to the next one, um, well, let's stick on this one.

I have some numbers for you.

I put together.

We've been really looking at this demographic and really looking and answering the question who are the folks that are coming in late or not late.

Who are the folks that are coming in on election day?

Why are they coming election day?

Where are they coming in, and why are they standing in line as opposed to just putting it in a drop box, right?

Uh think about what happened in Green Valley Ranch the last presidential election when folks were actually sitting at creating a line outside of Green Valley Ranch and in the snow when it started to snow.

So let's look at 2024.

Uh the increase was 31% of in of uh of um in-person voters.

Uh the let's see, VSPC voters in the on election day, was 51% over the previous presidential, a 31% increase over 2020.

Um, and in 2025, uh this was uh 61% on election day in person.

To the best of our ability, we've been really looking at this demographic, pulling numbers together and coming up with a couple conclusions.

I can tell you that just based off of my visits on election day, the two days before election day, and visiting vote centers.

I I could tell you that for the most part I've seen majority of folks who are younger.

First-time voters, showing up in person.

In Montbello, they have a tradition of ringing a bell and clapping every time there's a new voter register registering to vote or voting for the first time.

That bell doesn't stop all day long.

It's a very prideful thing.

I felt very good about it, but the other the other the last time I got a little bit concerned.

Um this demographic is largely 24 through 35 years of age.

They're mostly unaffiliated and they're mostly male, and they're coming from areas because we cannot collect uh demographic data.

Uh we don't ask if somebody's Latino or not when they're at the polls.

Um I could tell you they're coming from the areas where you have a lot of underserved uh communities where you have a lot of low prepared city precincts, it's those vote centers that you're seeing that um that surge.

The other exception is union station.

Union station's because it's very popular.

That's one of our uh most popular uh vote centers, but also one of the most expensive.

Uh, three elections in 2027 that we are uh preparing for as well, too, simultaneously.

So we have the primary, we have the general, then we have the municipal general, municipal runoff, and the coordinated election.

We have uh six elections that we're preparing for within two years.

So, uh that's that part.

Um, key dates, uh, 16th.

We have already transmitted our overseas military ballots that are sent out, and people can now come into our office and vote early if they want to.

If you wanted to vote today, you could.

Uh we have uh a box set up and boots set up.

You wanted to come in person to vote early, take care of that.

Um, Monday, June 8th is gonna be critical.

That's an important date if you want to share this in your newsletters and get this out.

Uh the ballots are mailed out, they're coming in from uh from Washington State.

Our printer out there is uh is the printer KH, the vendor that we've we used for a long time.

They're probably one of the best ones in the country.

We don't have the capability of doing that, we don't have a printer with the capability of doing that here.

Um we will go out there when they're being printed, as always, watch them get in printed.

We watch them load, we verify the seals on the trucks, those trucks do not stop all the way down to Denver.

They stay at the GMF, the general mail facility.

We meet them here, we verify the seals, make sure everything's right with the with the vendor, and we watch them unload and go right into the mail stream.

Okay.

There are no bamboo fibers in our uh in our drop on our in our mail.

Um mid-June, our vote centers will start opening up in phases.

We have four phases all the way to the end.

Know that uh we will be using the library instead of uh the web from here on out.

We have a great partnership now.

Uh instead of paying 175,000 to use our own McNichols uh building, we are using the DPL's uh new room that they have downstairs for free with a great partnership.

Um so uh that's that.

Tuesday last day to vote, June 30th, election day.

Uh gotta be had have those ballots proceeded by 7 p.m.

Uh if you're voting, remember it's less than don't put it in the mail less than eight days out.

Uh election trends.

Um we think we've kind of gone through this a little bit.

Yeah.

General election, those are the dates.

We'll put these on, we'll send you the slides, but please put this put these dates in your phone.

This is gonna be, like I said, the Super Bowl.

Um here are three key messages.

These are three asks of folks who can get the word out, okay?

Three priorities.

Uh promote the use of the 24-hour drop boxes over any other voting method.

P people can vote in person, people can vote by mail if they want to.

But the key to this is the key to some of solving some of these other issues in drama if it arises.

Why it's important, they're open 24-7 for 22 days.

There's 40 uh 48 locations across Denver.

They're constantly um surveillant.

We surveiled.

We um we have eyes on them 24-7.

We have three other sites that we're exploring.

One of them on East Colfax.

If you look at that map and look where the drop boxes are, there's a huge uh gaping hole in the east side around in the sixth, the pre-in HD six around 24, 25, 20, 23, 26, where we do not have the infrastructure to just be able to put a drop box.

Drop boxes have to be located areas where they're ADA accessible and compliant with state law.

The infrastructure, it's telling.

You know, some areas that have city infrastructure, we partner with that.

Um, they meet those compliments they meet the same compliance.

We can't just put one down.

So we've been working with partners, one of them being the roads uh uh building over affordable housing apartments.

Rose on the facts.

Only to be met with a stiff arm by their um investor Wells Fargo.

We are we've been working on this for the last two years.

We've almost you know dropped this cold.

We've been working with Council Councilwoman Lewis to do it.

We're gonna need a little bit more pressure.

If uh, you know, it's one thing to be able to solve the solve the problem of affordable housing, it's another to make sure that they actually have a voice in the political process.

Right, and we're fighting to make sure that that happens.

The reason why we like this area is because it's it's you know perfect for a camera, perfect for the the ADA compliance, but also along a major, major bus route.

Okay, the other one was Athmar Park Library.

Thank you for that, uh, Councilman Alvidres.

Um, and then the other we're looking at is to move to add an additional box around Union Station.

Union Station is always a line.

Um, and we're always you know going back and forth with setting up that VSPC.

We were able to get the price, keep the price from not being doubled to keep it there.

It's a very popular vote center.

The one that we have that's at Union Station is by the light rail station.

So if you got to walk those few blocks, that's where that box is.

No one's gonna walk all the way the heck over there until unless they are actually on the light rail, bringing in their ballot.

We want to keep that because we believe that's that's important, but we'd like to see one in the front somewhere.

I know it doesn't go with some of the decor, but it would be a heck of a statement, and it would solve the issue of these lines at Union Station.

Okay.

Um, so drop boxes, key message.

You can't.

If someone seeks, if someone's seeking to try to intimidate somebody at a vote center or at a voting location.

Um people usually target, and I don't want to give out the playbook, but uh people who are in line at a vote center.

If there were reports of people intimidating, agents intimidating, which is illegal, by the way.

If any kind of vice agent or anybody walks up to a to a vote center or voting facility or any elections facility, it's illegal by federal law.

And we would do everything possible to prosecute them.

And we've met with the uh the city attorney chief of police and the mayor to make sure that the enforcement would be arrest.

Anybody trying to intimidate a voter at any one of our vote sites or boxes will be arrested and prosecuted.

And I want to make sure that folks here know that and folks in the public know that.

The best way to prevent drama is to just put it in a drop box.

Okay.

Voting early.

If we get those things early, we're able to do the process early.

The one thing that we don't like is when those ballots surge at the end because results come in.

The results that you see 7 p.m.

on Monday are everything we've received before then.

Everything else, they're going through the process.

By the time 8 p.m., the second results come in.

We don't even have all the boxes yet because they're coming in from Southeast Denver, far southwest, and Mount Bellow Green Valley Ranch, right?

So we don't we don't have a better update until about 10 p.m.

So when people say, oh, what's taking so long?

Well, it's everybody coming in and making sure we account for those ballots, right?

Um it's easier to do that when people vote early, it's done.

Got it.

We're able to post results, and there's less uh, you know, conspiracy theories about what's happening.

Reach out to Denver elections to address voting issues.

I appreciate we have a lot of partners who affiliated with us, um, with our elections advisory committee.

We work with a lot of folks.

Um I know that there's a lot of gonna there's gonna be a lot of different lines to call for voter protection.

Before you do that, call us.

I want to give you an example about what happened in a not so recent, well, a pretty recent election.

Somebody complained and uh called in and posted on social media that uh voters are being harassed at uh an elderly couple is being harassed at uh Hiawatha Davis vote center.

By the time it got to us, it was shared 300 and something times.

It was blown up.

By the time we verified it, which when we were on the camera, there was nothing of the sort, um, and we looked at various angles, wasn't happening, confirmed that it wasn't happening.

Election judges there didn't see anything either.

Um it had had a created uh the opposite intent, and it drove people away from that vote center and that drop box.

We want to make sure that even good intent, we know that some folks have good intent.

Call uh call Denver elections.

We have eyes on it immediately.

We can see all of our boxes.

They're uh 24-7, we have eyes on them that are humanized.

We have our bipartisan teams of election judges that are uh uh doing our ballot security, all that.

We want to know ahead of time and in real time.

And if there's any questions about the election, their ballot, whatever, have them call us first.

We are in communication with the other entities that call us as well.

Um, but it's gonna be absolutely critical this time around in November.

Next one.

Uh political climate and threats.

We talked about the postmarking rule, doesn't apply here.

Maintaining state authority in elections, we stand by that, we're ready to go to court for that if need be.

Um we've been planning for it.

Uh maintain polling site safety free from intimidation.

I talked about, you know, uh what we do uh in practice for very different scenarios and the meeting that we've had and the agreement that we've had with the city attorney's office, the administration and chief of police.

Um importance of voting early prior to election day so that we are able to get those ballots in-house as quick as we can.

Um those ballots should be mailed at least a week before the receipt deadline for any election in Colorado.

The other thing that's really important, and I hope that you all can spread the word on is that not everybody who votes in Denver lives in Denver.

We have a lot of people who are from outside counties who leave their ballots in our boxes, and that's perfectly fine.

Um we on the the following day have a ballot swap, uh, where we have uh elections officials from across the state meet us in Denver, meet us at our headquarters, and we exchange, we basically give them their ballots, they give us ours.

We give them thousands of ballots.

Um, people rely on Denver's uh drop boxes.

So when the common question and the common surprise that people think that come up with is can I I didn't know that I can drop my Jefferson County box in a Denver box or Jefferson County ballot in Denver box.

You can use any drop box um around the state.

Uh you can vote at any vote center around a state in a statewide ballot.

So it's important for folks to know that.

If there's any doubt whatsoever about can they vote, are they who they are, whatever?

They can vote a provisional ballot, and we will be able to do that.

It's always the benefit of the doubt to the voter, okay.

Um other questions?

Sorry, I was trying to wrap all that up in a way that you know is concise, but that was super helpful.

Thank you.

I've got a list of council members in the queue.

And council members let me know if you would like to uh join.

Um first we're gonna go online um to Councilmember Flynn, and then we'll go to council members in the room.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Clerk Lopez.

One of the vulnerabilities that concern me about drop boxes is what we saw uh several cycles ago, at least, a lot of publicity, not in Colorado but elsewhere, where vandals go after those boxes and and drop the flammables into them and they destroy the ballots that are in the boxes.

And I know that we watch them on video, but that doesn't have the capability of stopping something in the in the immediate moment.

Um, what's what's your thoughts on that?

Because that really does concern me.

Yeah.

Well, uh, councilman, we do we do go through these scenarios.

I don't want to give the playbook because I don't want to tell people what they can and cannot do and what you know what methods we use to actually stop that.

But um uh we could talk offline a little bit about that.

I don't want to give bad people good ideas, um, but know that the boxes that we have, it's very hard uh for fire to exist in those boxes.

It's very hard for them to be destroyed, and um uh we have multiple, we have a lot of ways to be able to mitigate that situation.

There's anything to do to add.

Thank you, Cardin.

I understand that uh, you know, I understand you don't want to talk about it uh right out in the open, but I really appreciate any efforts that are expended to address uh that one vulnerability.

And uh it's our drop box system.

I think is remarkable.

I've only voted through the drop box, I don't think I've ever mailed it.

I've just used a drop box in my neighborhood.

And you make it very convenient.

Thank you.

Todd, and it may be worth it.

I think we can probably add that the boxes that we saw that happening too elsewhere in the country are not the same boxes that we have here, right?

I and I don't want to be so secretive about that.

I just um in our meeting, that's fair.

In our meetings with our we with the previous administration, we had a very close relationship with the Department of Homeland Security and Cyber Information Security Agency.

They pulled out from those, and that's the kind of crap that keeps me up at night.

Um, is why it makes this a very hard role, but I think it's the most important time to be in this role.

So, yes.

Another other I'm sorry, you have other questions.

Great.

No, you're gonna, you're all good.

Uh Councilmember Cashman.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thanks for the good work you and your team through clerical passion.

A good team.

It's it's uh I I'm proud of our election system that people can be assured that their votes can be counted and that their vote counts.

Uh, important.

So I think you you said you're looking at maybe three more box locations.

So I'm wondering.

I think you said you have 48 now.

Yeah, 40.

Over the past couple of years, are we increasing the number of boxes and voting centers?

Have we had to reduce those because of budget?

Where are we at with all that?

There's a minimum requirement um per voter per county that we have to adapt, we have to meet for state law.

Minimum requirement of boxes, minimum require uh requirement of VSPCs, um, then representative Gusan Coon Sales Gutierrez knows about all this stuff.

Um, those are minimums for statewide.

We go above and beyond, and also because we know that Denver serves the metro area region.

Right.

I talked about all the people come, folks coming in who work in Denver that can't afford to live in Denver, um, they we take their ballots, right?

So um part of it is uh also our goal.

We've doubled the amount of boxes.

We're set to see 50 perhaps by November.

Um, that's the most in the region for any jurisdiction in I don't know how many states.

So we work even in tight budget times, we're continuing to make it easier for people to vote.

They're budget efficient.

Um I actually have proposed to the Secretary of State's office for counties that start moving the culture of participation towards boxes and away from vote centers.

That we reduce the amount of cost that it takes to keep vote centers open, and instead you get a box, it's only that you have two individuals, Republican and Democrat going to empty out a few times a day every day for 22 days, as opposed to a fully staffed vote center for weeks, right?

So, um, it would balance out.

We're trying to do our best with it.

Um, we actually had this in our budget for the last for the for the last go-round, is those two.

Great, thank you.

Well, that's all, madam chair.

Great, thank you.

Council Protumber Mario Campbell, followed by Council President Sandball.

Um, thank you, madam chair.

Uh, thank you for the presentation.

Uh you had mentioned that ballots were going out to libertarians and unity.

Is that like a threshold or can you just talk a little bit more about that?

You want to try mine?

Sure.

Um, the minor parties that are participating were unable to come to a majority at their caucuses for each office.

So the libertarians have one contest on their ballot, and the unity party has one contest on their ballot.

Anyone, well, unity or unaffiliated voters can opt to vote a unity ballot.

Um, an unaffiliated voter would have to show up in person to get that ballot, but only libertarians are allowed to vote in their primary.

So the libertarian primaries closed, and um it's just they opted to do it, they have to give the secretary of state um 75 days, I believe, to notify them.

So it's not a huge increase because we didn't have to add envelopes, happily.

Um, they'll go into the same envelope as the um affiliated voters.

But I would just add that that is one of those unexpected, can't anticipate election costs that we talk about, having contingency for sometimes we don't know when that's gonna happen.

We can do our best to guess, but it does add paper and printing costs for us.

That's been our biggest our biggest change, is the price of paper mailing and printing.

Um, thank you.

That leads me to my next question about um, I know there was, I guess in the primary there isn't a blue book that goes out, or is there no?

But for the general election that will happen in November, do you have a different process that you're gonna be looking at?

I know there was like you know, people submitting everything getting printed, not printed.

Yeah, how what's your plan for that?

So anything that's table required is a blue book, and Tabers will send out send that out from the state.

Um, anything that's on our ballot and the on the or uh municipal or county level that would trigger taper.

Um we have to mail that that portion out to anything else is a decision of our office administratively.

We have not sent it out to everybody in the past two election cycles.

Uh we did that to save printing costs and to keep costs down overall.

Uh it's online for folks that want to do that.

Uh the other part of that is that, as you know, we talked about this in in previous you know meetings on the council, we looked at the blue book.

I'm restricted to making sure that the language for uh public input is only 500 words and it doesn't say nasty things about somebody's mother.

That's all I can do to edit.

I can't edit for facts.

So what it ends up becoming is Facebook on paper, and we get a lot of misinformation that's on as somebody who's been protecting against misinformation and really guarding misinformation in the elections realm, or guarding against misinformation in the actions realm, it makes me very sick and queasy knowing that we're actually printing misinformation, throwing things out that are not factual.

So that is also a decision of this council as well, too, because it is an ordinance that was created uh by a previous council to to have a blue book, a Denver Blue Book.

So what that looks like and how it moves forward and how it's paid for and everything else, I would love to continue the conversation.

I know we've had these conversations about this before.

Um, but at the end of the day, we're the only county that has uh county blue book, right?

Um it's not exactly apples and oranges compared to what they do at the state level when they have a an independent agency that's able to look at that, summarize everything, fact check and go forward.

They also have a lot more time, so the state blue book has legislated in the legislature ends the state has a much longer runway to actually do the analysis that they do for the state blue book.

We don't have that because you guys are sometimes referring to us very close to when the ballots have to be at the printer.

Um and so do those blue books.

So thank you, venture.

Thank you, Council President Sandball.

Thank you.

So, um, when it comes to union station in this last election cycle, I gained um Commons Park, and they all need the union station one.

So although, yes, like photography, like like iconic.

Would it be there?

Great, yeah.

Set it up there and take a photo and then move it to the other side, because actually the whole I lost West Colfax, which was a much bigger geography, to one precinct, which is Plat Platte Street, the um that tower right across from Confluence, all Balfour, which is a huge redevelopment of senior living, the glass house, and then the flower mill lofts, and then what's happened as people have moved into Lower Highland, and it's totally they redevelop they all a lot of those younger kiddos work and they walk because I'm on Platt Street, so I see them walking through the neighborhood and then they walk up and over.

Um, so there as someone who sits on the downtown development authority, you don't have a lot of residences right where you are.

Those residences are usually going to the one right there, they they're voting early because it's usually an older, much older population.

You don't actually have the younger population that we're trying to engage, but it's a pretty um good group of voters, and I've talked to them as I worked on the DDDA.

What I have heard when since in the last two and a half, almost three years, since um getting that new precinct is the need that they don't feel like connected to Highland, they don't feel connected to Scheitler, and they don't feel connected to Regis, and they don't go over into the Blair Coldwell.

I don't know why, I'm not gonna talk about that, but whatever.

But everyone, all that from the little man ice cream all the way to the consolidated line.

They all cost to go to union station, all of them, and so none of them go like if you think of Tihon, La Casita, hardly any of them go there.

They all go down to Union Station, and so they've all.

So we need one before we before the bridge.

Yeah, and so or the bridge or in plat on platform where the um where's that bridge, the millennial bridge?

Right there, they all gather right there.

So the millennials are crossing the millennials.

Yeah, the millennials are crossing because then they all work in Divida.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then on Platt Street, um, what's it called?

An oil and gas company went down there from British oil and gas.

And so tons of people walk down there.

Um, so plot, so I think so.

While you're putting the drop box, like take a photo of it in front of you.

And then, but they would really, yeah.

I mean, they would if you look at that when I got that precinct, and I lost, like, I think I lost five precincts to councilwoman Torres or one precinct in mind because it had such and that's when my density, yeah, and that's when I gained everything and had not so you're looking at 418, 420, 42, or maybe 421 in terms of those precinct coming over that room.

In 512, okay.

5'12, that's something that it and and I appreciate that council.

Because that that's the anecdotal uh evidence that we need.

And they're high propensity voters, trust me.

The people at Balfour, that whole huge that residents, like that's maybe.

And we have when we have folks that go to um whether it's uh you know Kappa Tower or Balfour or senior residents, we have our our folks.

They're all able bodies, I meet with them a lot.

They like to they're all over there by Union.

We'll talk about Whole Foods.

Well, it makes a lot of sense.

So I think part of it is just figuring out on what side of the bridge it is before it has even stage.

Yeah, they're where that eight little um those angel wings are, they all they do and I know that if if anybody, if there are any sites, if there are something if if there are anecdotal, you know, evidence that we can, you know, get infrastructure there and be able to do it and be compliant with state law, I'm happy to do it.

Yeah, and then one last thing about contingency, the need for quote unquote contingency.

Yes.

We change the rules.

So city council, since you know, like we change the rules, we can do reappropriation.

And so if you're forecasting that, yeah, we reappropriate all like all over the time and all and we changed the rules.

I think it was Councilwoman Kaniche.

It was who changed the rule, we're actually city council can we get used to be, we used to have to tell the administration for reappropriation, and now we can actually initiate it.

We've never done it.

Have we?

I don't think so.

Yep.

I don't know.

I'm looking at our attorney, we've never tried it.

We've created the rule, but we've never done it, and so like contingency, the way that contingency funds they don't work like how they used to when we back in the day.

They just don't, especially under this administration.

So I'm just saying that for forecasting, think about reappropriation and doing those using the other tools that we've actually created into the toolbox.

Um, because all everyone I know in the city, all their contingency funds are gone.

No one has contingency funds, like we're scraping dollars out of the couch cushions to help pay for all of the things, especially in such a flat budget.

So, just wanted to remind you and remind the public and remind all of us that we do have that tool.

I've talked to it with John about it.

Um, and just never used it.

That's good enough.

We we really appreciate that, especially now.

Thank you, madam chair.

Great, thank you.

Councilwoman Gonzalez could you have us.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, just a quick question.

When you said, you know, to that people should call you all first if they notice some kind of activity that is concerning at some of the polling places or even the drop off locations, I'm guessing as well.

Um, are you advertising that?

Because I know in the past I've been part of you know, groups that you set up a network, and you're driving around checking on the places, making sure there's no concerning activities taking place.

But at that point, like yeah, they never um I just want to make sure that that's being put out there somewhere so that it's a it's well known so that people know to call you.

Yeah, we we're we have it on all our material our materials, it's part of our our three core priorities for this time around leading up to November.

Um, and part of that is just I mean, we're out in the communities every single week, every day, as much as we possibly can, you know, um doing these kind of presentations um on social media, the doing it the best of our uh best of our ability right now.

But yeah, we we also share that with all of our partners that are part of the Denver Elections Advisory Committee, who are a lot of the other nonprofits that work in this area, and then um we also work very closely with other city agencies, so like if 311 gets calls, if 911 gets calls, they know to refer those to us and to our callers that we can handle those.

Um and while I'm at it, I just want to give props to the Office of Emergency Management who helps us coordinate a lot of these tabletop scenarios and to coordinate the other agencies to make sure they know to be sending folks to us as well.

So I'm thinking like the broader public, right?

And to your example, somebody they posted on social media and then it just blew up, right?

So then if the broader public has the information, it's great that the city agencies have it.

So I'm gonna see if uh that the city agencies have it, but I think having it out there to the broader public and making sure that you know, similar to like some of the other hotlines that are utilized out there in community, you know, and then even us as you know, on our pages, we can share that information.

I think it's sharing it out to the broader public in making sure because I didn't know that.

Um, it's it's on our website.

We try to really push it out there, and we're doing a lot of stuff on the ground as well, too, for the folks who are not necessarily on the web all the time, right?

So I mean, we've been in every single nook and cranny that we can in the city.

I think we had like over five, you know, 500 different contacts, like throughout the year that we were able to do with our team.

So we're doing our best with that one.

Um, but yeah, uh always the always always very good input receiver because that's something that we we really want to be careful with.

Um, and that's not to that's not to diminish uh councilman.

Our partners that are doing election protection and being on the ground in that because it is people's eyes and ears that we want to that we want out there.

If there's anything suspicious, please contact us, you know, before you go on social media.

So, and our call center that we have is manned mostly by humans, and it's consistently ranked the best reviewed call center in the city.

All right, that's it.

Thank you, Madam Cherry.

Thank you.

Council members, you know, yeah.

I know I'm squeezing it's um I did I did um have a question.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Library, yeah.

Do we spend that or does the Rappo County?

Three of us.

So it's three, it's it's three of our um sees.

What we did is no one knowing that we have a gap out there, um, in three counties.

Uh it's uh Arapahoe County's actual facility.

So it's there, it's Arapahoe County.

We partner with Adams, Arapahoe, to have a first of its kind, three county vote center.

Is it new?

It's two years old.

Okay, um, but yeah, we uh it has been a tremendous help, and it's something we won a national award for.

So that's great.

Um, one thing I'll just flag for you, it's in the bond to put um uh a co-located housing and library site on East Colfax.

So hopefully you can look to that as a facility.

Do you know about square?

Is it no?

I think they still have to determine where to put out the RFP and yeah, and then yeah.

You know, the the I'm at my wit's end with with Wells Fargo.

Uh and I think the intent has been always from the row people at the roads to see this happen.

And to have it stalled for a bunch of BS is ridiculous to me.

And it in at a time like this where we actually we want people to have access to the polls, we don't have anything else along that along that area where we can really target and put down the infrastructure.

If it's a camera, that's why you see all those orange little halo-looking cameras in our lot because those are what we deploy if we don't have a camera, right?

So yeah, I appreciate that.

And then the other one, councilwoman is it might be on your radar, is that uh when the Westwood Rec Center opens up, we're gonna move the box or add an additional box at Western Rec.

Yeah, I think either one is fine.

Um on the um uh blue book that you mentioned.

I honestly like it gives me um heartburn every time it comes out.

Um, and if we can't figure out whether it's timing-wise or uh accountability-wise, who actually makes it a real honest blue book, we just need to eliminate it.

But it is, I think it does more harm than good.

Um, so I don't know where um my colleagues stand on that.

Um, but I just every time I see it come out.

People really do assign honesty to it because it's got our city seal on it, yeah.

And um I I just think it contributes to misinformation.

I couldn't agree more.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Um, a couple of last minute questions from me.

First one is have you talked to the Colfax Mayfair Business Improvement District?

Yes.

And we couldn't find anything in there.

So there's a couple, there's a couple sites.

I'm actually meeting with them tonight.

Oh, good, okay.

I told you we're just taking this on the road.

Um, we're meeting with them tonight.

Unfortunately, the spot that they they have picked, it's not an ADA required.

It it doesn't meet the verifications.

The other one was New Freedom Park.

Yeah.

Um, but the other the problem with the park is that we would have to have the infrastructure on the light on that light pole, and it doesn't necessarily carry the wattage or the Wi-Fi to be able to do that.

Right.

So um it that that area is of great concern for us, um, because it demonstrates a huge need.

The other part of that is just north that that north side of Colfax is one of our highest propensity voting areas in the city by mailing Dropbox.

So it's so it just north of it is one story, south is a completely other.

And for us, having a drop box there on Colfax would be helpful for that.

That's huge.

I mean, you and I have talked about this for years because that used to be my district, um, although from Quebec West is still to Colorado is still my district.

Um, that it is such a tough one, and I'm I feel your frustration for Wills Fargo.

I I would it would be fantastic if there was a space within the Colfax Mayfair business improvement district area, Colfax to 14th kind of um Monaco East to Elm that would be really valuable.

Um it's still not really far enough west.

I mean east.

What about um it's not my district, so I don't know it that well, but there's that little like pizza place and bakery that's up.

Um maybe it's like MLK.

No, it's that's too far north.

Um maybe it's like Montview and Leiden.

I probably know how to pizza place in the city, but I don't know what to talk about that.

Okay, there's like a little, I don't know it very well because I don't spend a ton of time up on that side, but um there's like a little commercial area within the residential area in Park Hill.

Yeah.

I mean, it could be, I mean, we could look at that.

We're happy to go anywhere you ever if you ever drive by a place and you want to be great.

Send me a text and say you should look at this.

Send our team out to go.

Well, I hope that it's I hope your conversation with Colfax Mayfair Business Improvement District uh goes well because at least that would be and that stop at Monaco and Colfax is yes, I see you.

Um is the number one uh and it's intended to be the number one most used spot kind of along the Colfax BRT line, because that's where the grocery stores are.

So the other two grocery stores there are King Supers and a Safely.

Councilwoman, the other thing that I'm betting on, if I may.

Yeah, is the partnership that we have and we established with RTD, um, and to have our infrastructure on RTD property, like uh Southmore Station.

Sophomore station and your in your area, councilwoman is the number one next to district three uh police station in it's number two.

They always go back and forth to the most used boxes.

We have to send the uh ballot security teams out multiple times a day to empty that box.

So as that infrastructure builds on Colfax, you know, it's our intent to engage RTD to make sure that we can continue the agreement that we have to that we would maintain the box, the liability would stay with us and them can continuously, and that they're monitored so that any one of those stations could potentially have a box.

Yeah, that would be great.

Okay, um, in terms of the date for last mailing, so I am one of those people who like mails in my ballot.

I actually put a stamp on it and mail it in.

I can't really I it's a choice.

I don't know why I I don't, but I like the ballot tracker thing that you guys have where it's like tracks.

Yeah, I really like that.

Um, so um I'm curious what the last day is.

I think you said it was like eight days, but I am not I don't know what that means.

Yeah.

What like what is the last date to be able to do?

Okay before election day, yeah.

So for this election um, 23rd.

Yeah, thank you.

23rd, okay.

Do you have or does your communications team have for us newsletter, social, all of that stuff?

Can you please um be like send that to us as those days come out?

I feel like um our staff spends a lot of time tracking it down, and your website is fantastic, but uh we live in the world of information coming from reels and not from like websites anymore, and so um it would be super helpful for my aides.

I'll just use I statements for my aides, um, if we could like get that information in real time, like just a quick email.

Hey everyone, here's something for you to post on your social or share from our social today.

We'd be glad to.

That would be fantastic.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council of Pro Temer Merrill Campbell, did you want to get back in?

Yeah, just real quick.

Thank you, madam chair.

Uh the Hampton box uh we're at the Hampton Bridge Library, you know, it's under construction.

I really appreciate that you were able to get a box out there.

It is the location.

I think the consistency of having it there is good.

Agreed.

I don't know what the construction is a little chaotic right there right now, and you were able to get the camera.

Much appreciated.

Just I don't know if it's going to be too chaotic there right now with the construction because they had all of those big um trucks.

So maybe it's the communication with the construction.

It's not in my favorite place.

Yeah.

Right now.

But like you, we think it's important that it stays there.

And then after the renovation, it will go back where it was.

Um we are concerned about it, but the library's been such a great partner with us.

Um we bought those camera trailers with a grant two years ago, and they've been really invaluable for us.

Um, and in fact, we've linked them to the library during non-election periods so that during their construction sites, they have a they have eyes on their construction site.

We do watch those cameras, and so if we if we find issues, we'll certainly send someone out.

Um we also partner, of course, with DPD very closely.

And if we end up with a traffic issue like we do, for example, at Highland Rec Center, it's always a traffic jam.

Um, they will send someone as well.

And councilman in that area, we're also looking at another partnership or co-location with Rappahoe County that's close to to where you got at as well, too.

So we want to we want to fill in these gaps, and and you know, we've been doing this.

That the um I cannot tell you enough just how poetic, what poetic justice justice it was to be able to have the three counties working together for the first time at the LK Junior Library, considering what he fought for, right?

And so it's that it's Glendale, it's Southwest, it's it's in any one of these areas that we learned a partnership with you.

So, you know, you definitely input there is very well taken and appreciated.

We appreciate that.

Sure.

Co-located for the general election at Kirk Park with the Repho, just because that whole area is so in and out.

Denver or Repo, Denver Rappahoe.

Um, and we um we'll be co-locating at the El Louise May Library, which is not too far.

It's Florida and Leeds Deal.

Um, the other location, if like it gets too chaotic at Hampton would be maybe a partnership with Shoemaker elementary, just because it's right off of Hampton, yeah, and it's in that kind of nexus right next to the Nest neighborhood, also where we have low voter turnout just up.

We try to avoid elementary schools for safety, but I I agree that that is a prime location.

No, it is that's a beautiful location.

There's there's one part of me that absolutely believes that, you know, and and this is true with our young voters, and they'll they'll they'll they have identified this, and a lot of our conversations is that they vote what they only vote is 17%.

They vote only if somebody in the likelihood of a young person voting is because somebody in their household votes, um, and they've been engaged in the civic process since they were young.

I would love to have our drop boxes at elementary schools because it teaches them, it shows them, it exposes them.

People know where their mailbox is, do they know where their election box is, right?

However, DPS is really really risk adverse to having people who do not belong on a school campus like that.

It's kind of a you know, yeah.

I yeah, yeah, doctors.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Um, one other thing I will just say, I wanna say thank you to your team.

So, council members, if you don't know, not only do we send a letter, um, a welcome letter to every new home purchaser in our or new property purchaser in District five um once a month.

We also send a letter to everyone who turns eighteen in our district, and we do that once a month and we get that information.

We send them a pocket constitution and we send them vote because have you met me?

And we and we send them voter registration form, and we get that information in the voter registration form from the clerk's office.

After they turn 18, not before.

Um, but I just want to say thank you because I can't tell you the number of texts that because my kids are juniors and seniors now, right?

So that all their friends are turning eighteen.

I can't tell you the number of parents who have texted me and said like this is absolutely fantastic.

Thank you for sending this.

Um because it it it doesn't have that kind of contact doesn't happen.

And that is something from a city council office that is uh like yes, it takes staff time on the clerk's office, and it takes staff time for my staff to print them out and stuff them and all the things.

Worth it.

Totally worth it.

And so if you don't do it, I contact my staff.

I'm sure they're happy to give you the letter that we send.

You do it too, yeah, yeah.

Um and it's really really meaningful, and we get that information from you all.

So I want to just say thank you to for your partnership in that.

I think um there's just it is one more way that we can reach our younger voters and get them involved.

Julia turns 18 in October and she's dying to vote in the November election.

So um, you know, I think it's really i just want to say thank you and acknowledge the work that you guys put into providing that for us.

It's a big deal.

Councilman, I have three decades of staff in my office that have tried and true and that have done everything possible to make the elections division in Denver one of the best in the country, so yes.

Well, you are, and I appreciate it.

Um all right, with that we have two items on consent.

No one is called off, and we're adjourned.

Thanks for joining us.