Pitkin County’s voter precincts expand by two after post-Census analysis

Pitkin County commissioners signed off on two new voter precincts in the county earlier this week at the request of the county’s clerk and recorder.

The Clerk and Recorder’s Office is required to review voter registration numbers after each census count and redraw precinct lines if there are more than 1,500 registered, active voters in any precinct, Janice Vos Caudill, the clerk and recorder, told commissioners Wednesday.

This time around Precinct 6 in Snowmass Village had 2,247 registered voters and Precinct 7 in Woody Creek had 2,263 registered voters, Vos Caudill said in a separate interview Thursday.

To remedy the situation, Vos Caudill split the Snowmass Village precinct in two and re-designated it Precincts 8 and 9 with 1,190 and 1,057 registerd voters in each respectively. Woody Creek also now has two precincts, known as Precincts 6 and 7 with 1,116 and 1,177 registered voters in each, she said.

Most county voters, however, won’t even notice the change.

That’s because Colorado registered voters receive ballots in the mail, which can be mailed back or dropped off at strategically located boxes in the county, and do not vote in precincts anymore. Those who want to vote in person can go to one of three locations in even years and one location in odd years, Vos Caudill said.

In other words, the newly created precincts won’t necessitate two new voting locations, she said.

The area where the two new precincts will make a difference is with party caucusing, where rules may need to be tweaked, Vos Caudill said.