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Home » Preparing for the May 2012 Elections Information Every District Needs to Know — Part One

Preparing for the May 2012 Elections Information Every District Needs to Know — Part One

Publication Date: 
January, 2012

Pay attention, every special district1 must either:

  • hold an election on May 8, 20122 or
  • properly cancel it on or after March 6, 2012.


Even if you have eliminated term limits or finding new people willing to run for the board is harder than locating a needle in a haystack, you cannot just skip or ignore the election. Even legally “inactive” districts are required to conduct elections.3

Districts are statutorily required to file either their election results or their election cancellation paperwork with the Division of Local Government (“DLG”), and the DLG will send you a notice of non-compliance if they don’t hear from you (one way or the other) by the appropriate deadlines.4

If it hasn’t already done so, the first thing the district’s board of directors should do is adopt an election resolution. In the election resolution, the board calls the election, appoints the designated election official (“DEO”) to conduct the election, authorizes the DEO to cancel the election, if appropriate, decides whether to use a polling place or mail ballot format,5 and determines whether there will be any ballot issues or ballot questions in addition to the election of directors.

Earliest Duties and Deadlines
Call for Nominations (Feb. 8-23)
The Call for Nominations is the mechanism by which you notify the public that you are seeking eligible electors to nominate themselves if they are interested in serving on the board of directors. The Call for Nominations must be printed one time in one newspaper of general circulation in the special district sometime between February 8-23.6

Of course, this is the legally required minimum requirement for giving notice. If your district suffers from persistent vacancies in office or could use some fresh faces and ideas around the board table, you are encouraged to go beyond the statutory minimum—put the Call for Nominations on your website, post it in various locations around the district, include it as a billing insert or print it in your programs guide—shout it from the rooftops!

The Call must include:

  1. The special district director offices to be voted on at the election;
  2. Where a self-nomination and acceptance form may be obtained;
  3. The deadline for submitting the self-nomination and acceptance form to the designated election official (“DEO”); and
  4. Information on obtaining an absentee (now referred to as “mail-in”) ballot.


Include how many director seats are open and whether those seats are for a full term (2012-2016) or a partial term (2012-2014). You would have a seat open for a partial term if someone on your board was appointed (after the May 2010 election) to fill a vacancy on the board, and the seat to which he/she was appointed had a term lasting until 2014. The statutes require that anyone appointed to a vacancy must stand for election at the next regular election date if there is any remaining unexpired portion of the term to which he/she was appointed. However, if the board seat to which the appointee was appointed was due to expire in May 2012, then the appointee may run to remain on the board, but the seat would be open, and he/she would run, for a full (4-year) term (2012-2016).

Requesting a mail-in ballot
Electors may apply for a mail-in ballot using an application form available from the DEO or in the form of a letter, provided the letter includes the statutorily required contents.7 The DLG has prepared an Application for Mail-in Ballot Form (designated “Form B-2.1”) which DEOs may download from the Special District Elections page of the DLG’s website8 and provide to interested electors.

Applications for a mail-in ballot are due to the DEO by the close of business on May 1 if the applicant wants the mail-in ballot mailed to him or her. If the applicant is willing to come pick up his or her mail-in ballot, the deadline for filing the application with the DEO is the close of business on May 4.

DEOs may not give an elector a mail-in ballot without receiving a written application from that elector as described above.

Self-Nomination and Acceptance Form or Letter
Eligible electors declare their interest in running for the board and begin their candidacy for district director by filing a Self-Nomination and Acceptance form or letter with the DEO on or before March 2.

Incumbents don’t just automatically show up on the ballot. So even current board members whose terms are expiring in May 2012 and who want to continue to serve for another term (provided they aren’t prohibited from doing so by term limits) must file a Self-Nomination and Acceptance.

If a potential candidate misses the March 2 deadline for filing a self-nomination and acceptance, he or she may file an affidavit of intent to be a write-in candidate instead. In this case, his/her name will not be printed on the ballot, but a blank line will be printed on the ballot where electors may write in the candidate’s name and cast their vote for him or her. The deadline to turn in an affidavit of intent to be a write-in candidate is March 5.

The DLG has prepared a Self-Nomination and Acceptance Form (designated “Form B-9”) which DEOs may download from the Special District Elections page of the DLG’s website.9  Potential candidates may obtain this form from the district to use, or they may nominate themselves in the form of a letter, provided the letter includes the mandated contents:1

  1. Name of the special district;
  2. County in which district located;
  3. Director office sought by the candidate;
  4. Term of office sought, if more than one length of term is to be voted upon at the election (for example whether the office sought will last from 2012-14 or 2012-16);
  5. Election date;
  6. Candidate’s full name as it is to appear on the ballot;
  7. Whether the candidate is a member of an executive board of a unit owners’ association11 located within the boundaries of the special district;12
  8. Candidate’s signature, printed name, residence address (including street number and name, and city/town and county), mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address, and date of signature;
  9. Witness signature, printed name, residence address (including street number and name, and city/town and county), telephone number, and date of signature; and
  10. Candidate Affidavit/Disclosure concerning the Fair Campaign Practices Act as required by section 1-45-110, C.R.S.


The Candidate must be an eligible elector of the district (a person registered to vote in the State of Colorado and at least one of: (i) a district resident (of at least 30 days), (ii) a district property owner, or (iii) the spouse of a district property owner), and the Witness must be a registered elector who (i) resides within the district, or (ii) is eligible to vote in the special district.

The DEO must review all filed Self-Nomination and Acceptance forms or letters for compliance with the statutory requirements and Secretary of State rules by verifying the information provided against the voter registration records and the county assessor’s property owner records. DEOs may confirm out-of-county voter registration by using the Secretary of State’s online voter registration look-up. Contact the SOS-Elections Division to obtain the necessary login information. Be sure to explain you are the DEO for a special district and need access to this database for official election purposes only.

Following review, you must notify the potential candidate whether his/her Self-Nomination and Acceptance is deemed sufficient. If it is found to be insufficient, you must explain the reason, and the potential candidate then has one opportunity to file an amended form by 3:00 p.m. on March 2.

Possible Election Cancellation
A district’s election may be cancelled if at the close of business on March 6 there are not more candidates than board seats to be filled, and you don’t have any other ballot issues or ballot questions on the ballot. In this event, the DEO shall, if instructed to do so by board resolution, cancel the election and declare the candidates elected by acclamation. Additional follow-up duties include publishing and posting a notice of cancellation.

Elections Training Opportunities
Both the SDA and the DLG are offering trainings in preparation for the May 2012 elections.

DEO Training
The SDA is preparing to record a multi-part DEO training series presented by Micki Wadhams of Collins, Cockrel & Cole, P.C. (“CCC”) and Mary Zuchegno, SDA’s General Counsel. These presentations, as well as copies of sample election document forms, will be posted on the SDA website and made available to districts in a downloadable format. We anticipate that these training materials will be available approximately January 11, 2012.

In addition, the DLG is offering a “DEO 101” training course for first-time or relatively new DEOs. This interactive training will be conducted in a teleconference format, spread out over multiple weeks. It is anticipated that the first session will be held in mid-January. Please contact Joe McConnell, DLG’s Elections Specialist, at joe.mcconnell@state.co.us or 303-866-3180 for information or to get on the training invitation list.13

Election Judge Training
The law requires that election judges are also trained on their election responsibilities. However, in order to help the judges keep the information fresh in their minds, this training cannot be held too far in advance of Election Day. This year, election judge training in preparation for the May 2012 special district regular elections cannot be held earlier than March 24.

As that date approaches, SDA will offer election judge training in a webinar or recorded format that you can present to your election judges at times convenient to you and them. We do not currently anticipate holding on-site, live workshops for election judge training.

Caveat
This article and the other elections-related articles which will follow in upcoming issues of the SDA News do not, and cannot, cover every statutory and rule-based detail. Conducting an election is a highly technical, highly detailed, and often expensive undertaking. Please seek out training, as needed, and consult with the district’s attorney to ensure legal compliance and avoid an election contest.

Endnotes
1 This article applies to special districts organized and acting pursuant to title 32, article 1 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, for example, water, sanitation, fire protection, park and recreation, health service (hospital), metropolitan, and ambulance districts.
2 This is the date for regular biennial special district elections. This article does not attempt to discuss special elections.
3 See section 32-1-104(4), C.R.S.
4 See sections 1-5-208(6), 1-11-103(3), and 32-1-710, C.R.S.
5 The election must be conducted by mail ballot if you are including a “ballot issue” (such as increasing the mill levy, authorizing debt, de-Brucing, or another TABOR -related question) on your ballot. (Unless the county clerk is willing and available to conduct a coordinated election and act as coordinated election official for the district, or unless the ballot issue is part of an organizational election.)
6 For districts without such a newspaper, see section 32-1-103(15), C.R.S., for instructions.
7 See section 1-8-104, C.R.S.
8 See http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/DOLA-Main/CBON/1251597495504.
9 See link in footnote 8.
10 See section 32-1-804.3, C.R.S., and SOS Revised Proposed Rules Concerning Campaign and Political Finance, Rule 16.
11 As defined in section 38-33.3-103, C.R.S. See also 32-1-804.3(4), C.R.S.
12 This requirement was added to the law in 2011.
13 See http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/DOLA-Main/CBON/1251594654263.