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Pitkin County will reach out to more voters

Janet Urquhart
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO, Colorado

ASPEN – Inactive voters in Pitkin County will get a ballot for the Nov. 1 election after all.

A district court ruling in Denver late last week has paved the way for counties across Colorado to include the so-called “inactive – failed to vote” voters in the mailing for the fall election.

Previously, the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder’s Office had been working to get the word out to local voters that those who did not vote last year needed to reactivate their status in order to get a ballot in the mail for the upcoming November election.



Slightly more than 8,000 ballots are scheduled to be mailed Tuesday to county voters who are considered active, Clerk and Recorder Janice Vos Caudill said Monday. Now, the county is arranging to have an additional 2,568 ballots printed for the inactive group; they will go in the mail later this week, she said.

While the county isn’t required to reach out to its inactive voters, it will endeavor to do so.




“We’re making every effort to make sure we reach the voters,” Vos Caudill said.

On Friday afternoon, District Court Judge Brian Whitney issued an order denying Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s motion for an injunction to prohibit the Denver clerk and recorder from sending ballots to that city/county’s inactive voters.

As a result, clerks in Denver and Pueblo County immediately announced that they would send ballots to all inactive voters, as well as the active ones. Clerks around the state were subsequently advised that the Secretary of State’s Office won’t prevent other counties from following suit, and Pitkin County is doing so.

Of the 2,568 inactive voters in the county who will now get a ballot, more than 87 percent have not voted since 2008 or earlier, Vos Caudill said.

The Nov. 1 election is being conducted by mail only. There will be no polling places on Election Day. Ballots must be in the clerk’s possession by 7 p.m. on Nov. 1, whether they’re sent via mail or brought into the office in person.

In addition to the clerk’s office, voters may drop off their ballots at St. Peter’s of the Valley Episcopal Church, 200 Elk Run Drive, Basalt, and at Snowmass Village Town Hall from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. Ballots cannot be mailed to those locales, however, and the satellite drop-off sites cannot issue ballots; that can only be done at the clerk and recorder’s office.

Those who wish to send their ballots by mail or overnight courier should direct them to the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder; 530 E. Main St., Suite 101; Aspen, CO 81611.

Voters are reminded to keep their eye out for the arrival of the ballot in the mail in the coming days. Anyone who receives a ballot but does not wish to vote should destroy it so that it can’t be improperly used by someone else, Vos Caudill advised.

janet@aspentimes.com

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