A special election in Estes Park planned for January is a plot by the Grinch to keep eligible voters from casting ballots, a resident says.
Bill Van Horn says the decision to set a Jan. 12 special election to decide whether the town’s urban renewal authority should be abolished, is a “deliberate attempt to disenfranchise a significant number of voters in Estes Park.”
That’s because the all-mail ballot election will require ballots to be mailed the week of Christmas, when most Estes Park residents are out of town, Van Horn said. The mailing deadline will be Christmas Eve.
In a letter to Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Buescher, Van Horn said many residents leave Estes Park in late-December to mid-January or later.
“Come to Estes Park between Christmas and January 12, and you’ll imagine you’ve found a ghost town,” Van Horn said.
Van Horn — a proponent of abolishing the urban renewal authority — said setting the special election to Jan. 12 is an attempt by a majority of the town board to disenfranchise voters.
“It is no less deliberate than the poll taxes and literacy tests that were used in decades past by Southern states to obstruct blacks from exercising their constitutional right to vote,” Van Horn said.
Most of the town board in August said placing the urban renewal question on the Nov. 3 election would confuse voters. They reserved a spot in that election for a question on whether to create a new fire protection district.
Mayor Bill Pinkham said he’s not sure if the town can move the urban renewal authority election to later in January. “We will try and educate the voters as best we can on the issue,” he said. “Our board’s intent was to do the best thing for our town.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
