The Gazette reports that Colorado Springs is facing a fresh legal challenge over its long-standing practice of holding municipal elections in April of odd-numbered years, separate from the big November state and federal contests. The challenge comes from the League of Women Voters of the Pikes Peak Region, Citizens Project, and Harvard Law School’s Election Law Clinic, who sent the city a letter claiming the schedule violates the new Colorado Voting Rights Act.
Their argument is that April elections draw lower turnout, and that the drop-off is steeper for Hispanic and Black voters. Their demanded remedy is not subtle: Colorado Springs should prepare a charter amendment to move the election date, or risk getting sued. The city says it is reviewing the letter. Translation: here comes the professional democracy industry, clipboard in one hand, lawsuit in the other, ready to explain local control to the locals.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado Springs has held its municipal elections in April for a very long time. The Gazette reports the election timing is set in the city charter and has been in place since the 1870s.
- The activist-lawyer coalition says off-cycle elections depress turnout, especially among Hispanic and Black voters, and that this may violate the Colorado Voting Rights Act.
- The groups want the city to prepare a charter amendment moving the election date, with a 60-day response clock before a possible lawsuit. Nothing says “grassroots democracy” like Harvard legal stationery and a deadline.
- These same groups tried a federal Voting Rights Act lawsuit before. That case was dismissed in 2024 because the court found they lacked standing. So now they are back with Colorado’s shiny new legal crowbar.
- The Colorado Voting Rights Act gives advocacy groups a cleaner path to pressure local governments over election practices. Which means taxpayers may get to fund another expensive legal brawl over whether Colorado Springs is allowed to run Colorado Springs.
My Bottom Line
Let’s start with the honest part: election timing matters. April elections do not draw the same electorate as November elections. Everybody knows it. The people pretending election calendars are neutral civic wallpaper are selling something. Moving a municipal election to November would likely change who votes, how many people vote, and probably some outcomes too.
But that is exactly why this fight deserves scrutiny. This is not just about voting access. It is about power. Who decides how Colorado Springs runs its own elections? The city and its voters through their charter, or a coalition of nonprofits and Harvard lawyers waving the Colorado Voting Rights Act like a crowbar?
This is Colorado’s favorite little game. When activists like a local decision, they call it local control. When they do not, suddenly local control is a civil-rights emergency, and everyone west of the nonprofit conference table needs to be corrected by credentialed outsiders. The same crowd that can find “democracy” under every couch cushion somehow keeps discovering that democracy requires lawyers, demand letters, pressure campaigns, and a city charter bulldozer.
If there is hard evidence that Colorado Springs’ April elections unlawfully dilute protected voters’ participation, put it on the table and let the process work. But do not insult everyone’s intelligence by pretending this is pure civic virtue floating down from Mount Harvard. Election timing is political terrain. The activists know it. The city knows it. The taxpayers know who gets stuck with the bill when the ruling-class legal hobby farm decides another local practice must be dragged into court.
Source: The Gazette
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