President Fenberg’s Legislation to Make Colorado’s Elections More Democratic and Inclusive Passes Committee

Each year, Fenberg champions legislation to clean up Colorado’s elections and ensure they remain the gold-standard

DENVER, CO – The Senate Appropriations Committee today approved Senate President Steve Fenberg’s, D-Boulder, bill to improve our elections system, including strengthening financial disclosures of candidates and elected officials and improving the vacancy elections process.

Under current state law, if a state senate or house district comprises more than one county, elected precinct committee persons are not part of the vacancy committee. On the other hand, if a state senate or house district consists of one county, elected precinct committee persons are part of the vacancy committee. This difference leaves single county districts with hundreds of voters in the case of a vacancy, where multi-county districts have single digits to tens of votes. 

SB24-210 would address this discrepancy by requiring all state central committees to include their elected precinct committee persons, as well as the chairpersons, vice-chairpersons, and secretary of the several party county central committees who reside within the district. Expanding the number of voices on a vacancy committee increases the representation of those in the impacted districts and makes the process more democratic.

“Colorado’s elections are the envy of the country - but there are always adjustments and improvements we can implement to make our election system even better,” Fenberg said. “This bill will allow more Coloradans to have their voice heard in the case of vacancies and improve access for young voters, in addition to strengthening our financial disclosure laws. In Colorado, we are continuing to build confidence in our democratic process and ensuring we remain at the forefront when it comes to holding free and fair elections.”

This legislation would increase transparency and ethics in financial disclosure laws by ensuring the public has access to information about public officials’ finances and their potential conflicts of interests. If a citizen feels that someone isn’t complying with the law, there will now be a clear process for how to file complaints. 

Additionally, the bill would make Colorado’s election process more accessible to young voters by requiring counties to establish a ballot drop box on each higher education campus that has 1,000 or more enrolled students.

SB24-210 now heads to the Senate floor for further consideration. Follow its progress HERE.