Bacon: Special election will ‘blow up’ budget

Contest to name placeholder U.S. Representative will more than double cost of primary election

The need for a special election to name a placeholder representative in Ken Buck’s seat is resonating through courthouses across the 4th Congressional District.

Logan County Clerk Pam Bacon told the Board of County Commissioners Tuesday the special elections “is going to blow my budget up.”

Buck announced last week that this Friday will be his last day as a congressman. He has grown increasingly frustrated with the divisiveness among Republicans in the U.S. House and sees no point in continuing to work in a donothing Congress. Gov. Jared Polis has set June 25 — the same day as the primary elections in Colorado — as the date for a special election to pick Buck’s replacement through the end of the year.

It was presumed that the simultaneous elections were set to save money but if that’s true, it didn’t work. Bacon said she normally would need about $35,000 to hold a primary election but adding the special election blows the cost as high as $80,000. That’s because Colorado’s wide-open primaries are held differently than general elections.

Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters get copies of both parties’ ballots but can only vote one. Voters registered in the American Constitution, Approval Voting, Colorado Center, Green, Libertarian, No Labels and Unity parties do not participate in the primary election. Bacon said there are fewer than 200 people in Logan County registered in those parties.

However, all nine parties can participate in the general election, which is essentially what the special election is, so that probably will require a separate ballot, more election judges and more voting locations on Election Day.

Deb Unrein, the county’s finance director, told the commissioners the county can cover the extra cost from its reserve funds.

Bacon said the extra costs inflate exponentially in the more populous counties in the 4th CD. She said Weld, Adams and Arapahoe counties each will likely spend around a quarter of a million dollars on the June 25 elections.

In other business Tuesday the commissioners awarded a bid for the asphalt overlay program, approved $38,500 in expenditures

from the lodging tax fund, and handled other routine business.

The asphalt overlay bid went to Martin Marietta of Fort Collins for a total of just over $5 million. That was the lowest of the four bids submitted.

Lodging Tax Board funds were approved in the amount of $33,000 for the tourist center director’s salary, $2,000 to advertise the High Plains Truck and Tractor Pull in June and $3,500 to promote the Colorado Flatlanders annual Rod Run.

The commissioners approved a subdivision exemption for Donald Werner to create a 4-acre parcel from a 170-acre parcel northwest of Atwood.

County offices will be closed March 29 in observance of Good Friday.