ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Englewood's November election is already historic.
For the first time in more than 70 years, Englewood voters will decide who their mayor will be, rather than the Englewood City Council appointing someone. This sparked conversations about the city's voting process.
Englewood voters currently use plurality voting, meaning the candidate with the most votes wins. After Englewood voters recently passed a measure allowing them to elect their own mayor, city leaders began discussing whether the city should switch to a majority-vote method instead.
No change was made to voting methods. The conversations, however, concerned a group of citizens looking to preserve the current voting method in Englewood.
"Something as big as how we vote is something that I think deserves to be in the city charter," said Matt Crabtree.
Currently, there are no rules in the voting section of the City of Englewood's charter. Ballot Issue 2A would change that and add plurality voting to the charter.
- Read the ballot language below
To protect voter rights and avoid unnecessary costs or confusion during municipal elections, shall the Englewood Home Rule Charter be amended to preserve the current municipal election system in which candidates receiving the highest number of votes in a regular or special election are elected, with the intent that this language shall override any conflicting provisions in the Charter or Municipal Code?
"The 'most votes win' is the method that Englewood voters are used to in the city," Crabtree told Denver7. "Most cities vote that way, especially in municipal elections. So, when you're looking at a majority vote of having to receive more than 50%, that's where that runoff system was going to trigger. If you didn't get 50% of the vote during the November election, then it would go to a special election that would occur 90 days later."
He's concerned that a majority vote method would cost taxpayers unnecessarily, impact voter turnout and confuse the community.
"There's not really an organized 'No on 2A' campaign, but we, as Vibrant Englewood, are advocating in our local elections, and so we've taken a position that we don't support the ballot measure," said Noah Kaplan, founder of the community group Vibrant Englewood.
The group is encouraging people to vote 'no' on 2A. They believe adding a specific voting method to the city charter will be difficult to change if the community decides to in the future. Kaplan said plurality voting does not always indicate what a majority of people want.
"If we have more than two candidates in a race, the person who gets the most votes wins, even if that's 35%, 40% of the vote? That's not how we think democracy works, right? We talk about it as majority rule, but that's not a majority," Kaplan said.
Politics
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Voting 'yes' on 2A would add plurality voting to the city charter and would require a vote to change it.
"That would guarantee that the people of Englewood would have the opportunity to vote on how we vote," said Crabtree.
Voting 'no' on 2A would not change the current plurality voting method for Englewood, but instead would keep plurality voting off the city charter.
Currently, the authority to change voting methods in the city lies with the city council. Earlier this year, when the council was discussing a possible majority voting change, many councilmembers agreed they wouldn't make a decision like that without voter approval.
"The way voting occurs in this city is controlled by ordinance, not by charter, with the exception of when the offices are up for election," Englewood City Councilmember Steve Ward said during a discussion in early April. "So, if we wanted to unilaterally, as the seven of us or four of the seven of us, change the method of electing the mayor, that would be within our authority. We have not discussed doing that. What we've discussed doing is putting it on the ballot for citizens to vote whether or not they want to change the method."
Right now, there is no city-led initiative or ballot question to change voting methods.
Election Day is on November 4.
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