Denver's top election official and the city's mayor are at odds over funding and plans for election worker security in 2024.
Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul Lopez, who oversees elections, wants increased funding to expand Denver's main election facility downtown, which processes and tabulates ballots, and to increase security ahead of the 2024 presidential election year. This comes as elections workers nationwide are receiving more threats, even in the lulls between election cycles.
"The growing number of attempts and threats to disrupt the democratic process by harming systems, election officials, and poll workers are very real," Lopez wrote in an Oct. 5 letter to Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.
"Your reduction of our capital budget request to secure critical election infrastructure poses a threat to the security and continuity of our operations and personnel; and as the chief election official for the county, it is a risk I will not accept," Lopez wrote in the letter.
Lopez sent the letter because Johnston's proposed budget does not fully fund Lopez's capital request to increase security and expand the downtown office space. The city's budget hasn't been finalized and requires a vote of Denver's City Council.
The mayor's office declined an interview but said in an emailed response to Denverite's questions that "election integrity and security is always a priority in our city."
Both the mayor's office and Lopez said they are in the process of negotiating a resolution.
Lopez said a recent audit from the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency showed Denver has security shortfalls. While Johnston's proposal provides a significant increase in the election office's operating budget to account for the presidential election year, Lopez said any reduction from what he requested has real consequences.
"This has been a priority of ours stemming from last year, and it has now spanned two administrations for us, making sure that we are providing the security upgrades necessary to be able to ensure a secure, transparent and accessible election in 2024," Lopez told Denverite.
Johnston's proposed budget does include $175,000 in security improvements for the Elections Division, for "security cameras, secured card access, and enhanced doors, as requested by the Clerk's office during the budget process," his office said in their emailed response.
Johnston's staff said the sticking point has been about the request to expand the Denver Elections Division's office space, which means Denver would need to permanently relocate three divisions from the Department of Safety, which currently occupy part of the building.
"We understand the Clerk's concerns and the city's capital planning team is actively working with him to address his requests for additional elections space. To clarify, this is not a funding question; it is logistical."
But Lopez said there has been a lack of communication from the mayor's office that he called "frustrating." Now, he said, things are improving and he hopes for a resolution. He said he expects misinformation, disinformation and threats to election workers to ramp up next year.
He's already making adjustments: he recently decided to no longer livestream video of Denver's ballot processing.
"These threats are real and I have a duty to mitigate them, and that includes protecting our elections, workers and voters as they're participating in the process."
