Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul López is frustrated that a mayoral committee has twice passed by his proposals for funding from the Vibrant Denver bond, which still needs Denver City Council and voter approval.
"Using the bond as the method to do this is the most appropriate way to do this," Lopez says. "It's critical city infrastructure, it's about continuity of government, it's about protecting the continuity and operations of our democratic process."
His fears stem from the way his staffers have to set up elections. During election season, equipment like ballot boxes, voting machines, ballot markers and printers have to be "deployed" to 39 voting centers throughout the city; this requires moving the equipment out of the Denver Elections Division building at 200 West 14th Avenue and loading it on and off trucks in the back alley.
"It's like moving out of your apartment 39 times," López says. "It's okay for today's standards, but moving into the future, given the kind of environment that we're facing, it's rolling the dice, and I'm not elected to roll dice." The equipment and staff are too exposed during the process, and security is a growing concern for López as his office receives more and more violent threats each year. While staff and equipment are moving in and out of the Elections Division, someone "can Molotov our building and it all goes up in flames," he says, referencing a recent incident in Archuleta County.
"The threat to elections, the threat to democracy, the threat to elections personnel is not some far-fetched concept. It is at our door," López warns. "We've had a lot of security upgrades in this building. We now have ballistic film on our glass, we have bollards in front of our building, we have hardened infrastructure inside. Outside, it's a different story."
According to López, a 100,000 square-foot storage warehouse would reduce the amount of time that equipment and staff are exposed. The Elections Division building creates a bottleneck that only allows them to offload equipment for one voting center at a time, he notes; from a warehouse, his staff would be able to deploy equipment for multiple centers at once.
"We know what we're looking for: It's a warehouse that's already built, an old Safeway, an old Kmart. I know of a couple that have been vacant for a long time," López says. "We can go in, transform it, move all of our equipment into one secure place for storage and deployment."
Colorado knows what kind of threats elections staffers face right now. On June 12, the clerk's office in Archuleta County was firebombed, allegedly by a former sheriff candidate, who was arrested on July 14.
López, a former city councilman, was first elected Denver Clerk & Recorder seven years ago; he says that he's proposed this warehouse every budget cycle since then. If it isn't funded by the bond, he adds, it will have to be funded by the city's general budget, which he believes will be more difficult for the city as it faces a $200 million budget shortfall next year that will lead to layoffs and furloughs.
Warehouse Is Too Expensive for City Officials
The Vibrant Denver bond still needs to be approved by council before it goes on the November ballot, where voters will have the final say.
Laura Swartz, a spokesperson for the Denver Department of Finance, says that more projects can still be added to the list. Council must approve the final list by August 25 in order for it to make the ballot.
"The list can still change up until it is referred to the ballot," Swartz says. "The Department of Finance and the mayor's office will continue to work with city council over the next few weeks to improve and strengthen the bond program."
According to Swartz, López's warehouse was rejected for Vibrant Denver bond funding largely because of its $50 million price tag and "other needs across the city resulted in the committee recommending other projects ahead of a new city warehouse."
Amanda Sandoval, council president, served as co-chair for the Vibrant Denver bond committee along with Nicole Doheny, the head of the finance department. In a written statement, Sandoval explains that the city has other priorities and not enough money for the warehouse.
"The committee's recommendation reflected the difficult but necessary trade-offs required to put forward a fiscally responsible bond package," Sandoval says. "We focused on projects that were ready to proceed, aligned with adopted citywide plans, and fit within the overall financial capacity of the proposal...I understand the clerk's frustration, but many projects, including neighborhood improvements, have been waiting in the queue for decades."
But given the city's economic situation, López thinks Vibrant Denver could be his last chance for the project. "We have to try. This is exactly what bonds are for," he says. "We need the storage facility. It's not extravagant, it's not aspirational, it is straight-up critical infrastructure."
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston proposed the Vibrant Denver bond in February. By selling bonds that can be paid back long-term, Johnston suggested the city can raise upwards of $800 million to improve city facilities and infrastructure during the next six years.
In early May, Johnston appointed ten city officials and business leaders to the Vibrant Denver Bond Executive Committee and tasked them with selecting projects to be funded by the bond. On July 8, the committee published a list of four dozen Vibrant Denver projects that councilmembers still have to approve; the total is now $935 million.
Proposed projects included repairing bridges, upgrading traffic signals, widening sidewalks, constructing bike loops, rebuilding pools and building middle-income housing. The cost of the projects totaled close to $1 billion, overshooting Johnston's original estimate by about $200 million.
López isn't alone in expressing his disappointment with the projects included on the list; councilmembers who weren't on the bond committee complained that their districts had been overlooked. After a couple of weeks spent meeting with councilmembers, Johnston added fifteen projects and removed four others. He released the updated list on July 18, but it still didn't include the storage warehouse for elections.
In response to that second snub, López stated that "our bond proposal remains the best viable option for city council," adding that "we cannot be expected to protect our democracy with a rusted lock on a broken door."
In early May, Johnston appointed ten city officials and business leaders to the Vibrant Denver Bond Executive Committee and tasked them with selecting projects to be funded by the bond. On July 8, the committee published a list of four dozen Vibrant Denver projects that councilmembers still have to approve; the total is now $935 million.
Proposed projects included repairing bridges, upgrading traffic signals, widening sidewalks, constructing bike loops, rebuilding pools and building middle-income housing. The cost of the projects totaled close to $1 billion, overshooting Johnston's original estimate by about $200 million.
López isn't alone in expressing his disappointment with the projects included on the list; councilmembers who weren't on the bond committee complained that their districts had been overlooked. After a couple of weeks spent meeting with councilmembers, Johnston added fifteen projects and removed four others. He released the updated list on July 18, but it still didn't include the storage warehouse for elections.
In response to that second snub, López stated that "our bond proposal remains the best viable option for city council," adding that "we cannot be expected to protect our democracy with a rusted lock on a broken door."
Laura Swartz, a spokesperson for the Denver Department of Finance, says that more projects can still be added to the list. Council must approve the final list by August 25 in order for it to make the ballot.
"The list can still change up until it is referred to the ballot," Swartz says. "The Department of Finance and the mayor's office will continue to work with city council over the next few weeks to improve and strengthen the bond program."
According to Swartz, López's warehouse was rejected for Vibrant Denver bond funding largely because of its $50 million price tag and "other needs across the city resulted in the committee recommending other projects ahead of a new city warehouse."
Amanda Sandoval, council president, served as co-chair for the Vibrant Denver bond committee along with Nicole Doheny, the head of the finance department. In a written statement, Sandoval explains that the city has other priorities and not enough money for the warehouse.
"The committee's recommendation reflected the difficult but necessary trade-offs required to put forward a fiscally responsible bond package," Sandoval says. "We focused on projects that were ready to proceed, aligned with adopted citywide plans, and fit within the overall financial capacity of the proposal...I understand the clerk's frustration, but many projects, including neighborhood improvements, have been waiting in the queue for decades."
But given the city's economic situation, López thinks Vibrant Denver could be his last chance for the project. "We have to try. This is exactly what bonds are for," he says. "We need the storage facility. It's not extravagant, it's not aspirational, it is straight-up critical infrastructure."
The mayor toured Denver neighborhoods in the spring promoting the Vibrant Denver bond. His push for a half-cent sales tax to fund cost-controlled housing projects, known as Affordable Denver, failed after voters rejected the ballot measure last November.
Election Security Worse Than Ever
Last October, a Cortez man pleaded guilty to threatening Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who certifies the state's elections. That same month, a jury sentenced former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to nine years in jail for tampering with election equipment.
"The threats against the secretary of state's office, the threats against elections officials, the threats against my office, they're real threats," López says. "Most importantly, they threaten the democratic process."
Colorado has been home to high-profile court cases involving elections, as well. Last month, a jury found that former MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell defamed an executive of Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based company that provided much of the equipment and software for the 2020 national election.
According to López, the Department of Homeland Security isn't as protective of the election process as it was a year ago, since President Donald Trump "gutted" the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
"Unfortunately, we don't have the partnership of the federal government when it comes to election security," he says. "That means we have to stand in the gap to ensure that security. Making sure that the buildings are hardened, making sure that elections personnel and infrastructure is protected is part of that, central to it."
"Unfortunately, we don't have the partnership of the federal government when it comes to election security," he says. "That means we have to stand in the gap to ensure that security. Making sure that the buildings are hardened, making sure that elections personnel and infrastructure is protected is part of that, central to it."
