It’s Time to Vote!

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  – My name is Julia Caulfield. I’m the news director at KOTO Radio. I’ve been there since 2019 and have been covering local, county, state elections since that time. Midterm elections can sometimes maybe get a little bit overlooked, but there’s a lot of really important stuff on the ballot this year, especially on the local level. Voters in San Miguel County will get to vote on a sheriff. Which is exciting because it’s the first time in quite a while that we’ve really had a proper race for sheriff. Former Sheriff Bill Masters served for 45 years, that’s 12 terms. He always ran either unopposed or won by a really big margin. So actually having a decision this year is kind of new for us. We have, the two candidates running, our current sheriff, Dan Covault. He was appointed by the San Miguel Board of County Commissioners last year. And he is going up against Lane Masters, who also went for the job last year. He’s currently serving as a deputy at the Telluride Marshal’s Department, and he’s the son of former Sheriff Bill Masters. Voters will also decide on a race for San Miguel County Commissioner in District 2. We have two longtime locals, Paul Reich and Dylan Brooks, running to take the seat currently held by Lance Waring, who is termed out. And then there is one local ballot measure up for vote this year coming from the Telluride R-1 School District. They’re asking voters to approve a mill levy increase, that’s a tax increase, to help with funding for the school district after massive cuts from the state. On the state level, we have current Colorado Attorney General Democrat Phil Weiser running for governor this year. He is going up against Republican self-described high-risk humanitarian Victor Marx. And then in Congress, incumbent Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper is running against Republican Mark Baisley. Looking on to the House of Representative, incumbent Republican Representative Jeff Hurd is running against Democrat Dwayne Romero. And then coming down to the super local Colorado State House in District 58, Larry Don Suckla is the Republican, he’s the incumbent, and he is running unopposed this year due to a clerical error that didn’t get a Democrat on the ballot. Colorado is unique in the country, although it’s not necessarily unique to this year that we have a lot of statewide ballot measures. This year, we have 14, and only one of them was actually referred by the state legislature. The rest of them are citizens’ initiatives, so it means that they’re coming from the voters. Which happens a lot in Colorado because we have an easier process to get those citizens’ initiatives on the ballot. This year, almost half of the measures are coming from Advance Colorado, which is a conservative dark money group that is throwing their weight behind these ballot measures. One reason that conservative groups are sending measures through the ballot process rather than the general assembly is because currently-we’ll see what happens with the elections- but currently Democrats hold a super majority in both the State House and Senate. And so they’re opting to go to the voters directly rather than trying to move legislation through the legislature. Midterm elections aren’t always the sexiest, but there are a lot of really important measures and races up for a vote this year. So make sure you vote, turn in your ballot. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3rd. You can register up through Election Day. And you can check your voter registration at govotecolorado.gov. And happy voting season.