Add another person to the list of Denverites unhappy with the proposed Vibrant Denver bond package: Clerk and Recorder Paul López.
The clerk and recorder’s office runs Denver’s elections, among other responsibilities. As the city drafted a proposal for $935 million of debt-funded projects, López requested funding for a new elections facility.
López has been asking for the upgrade for years — the building they’re currently in was never built to hold elections operations. The building at 200 West 14th Avenue was first built for the University of Denver, then it was home to various city services before it was inherited by the clerk’s office in 2010. Elections operations are concentrated in the basement.
Fifteen years later, López said the elections team has outgrown the building. Part of the problem is simple — they are running out of storage space.
“It's Tetris every single time,” López said, pointing to a tower of boxes stacked in a room. “At this point in time, [there are] 39 vote centers, 46 [ballot] boxes, not including the 50 that we're going to have by 2026. That number's going to rise.”
It isn’t just space for items either. Staff said there’s barely enough room for people on Election Day, leading to slower ballot counting.
“We won't talk about the issues we had last election with the plumbing with that many people,” said Jimmy Flanagan, the election division’s operations manager.
López said the need has grown even stronger following recent events — he pointed to the need for greater security following recent firebombing at the Archuleta County Clerk’s office and President Donald Trump’s slashing of election security funds.
López saw the bond proposal as a solution.
Like many others, López wanted a piece of the Vibrant Denver bond’s $935 million pie. The bond proposal will ask voters to approve new debt for infrastructure projects citywide.
Early in the bond process, a subcommittee identified an elections facility as a high-priority project.
“We're asking to find a warehouse, find an old Safeway, find an old K-Mart,” López said. “One that we can go in, retrofit and occupy and install the things that we need to keep in house.
City officials estimated the facility would cost $43 million, making it one of the larger projects under consideration.
But the bond proposal's executive committee axed the project — and many others — during closed-door deliberations., López said he was surprised to see his project wasn’t on the list. He joined a symphony of discontent alongside neighborhood groups and Denver City Council members. Other criticisms included a lack of projects in certain neighborhoods and a lack of funding for bike and pedestrian projects, among others.
He sent a letter to City Council, asking them to include the elections facility in potential amendments to the package.
“To continue serving our constituency, the Denver Clerk & Recorder requires a secure Elections storage, deployment, and processing facility. We have submitted our critical need for additional space through the City’s Capital Improvement Planning process for the past six years,” the letter said.
The letter also quotes the city charter, which requires Denver City Council to provide sufficient funding to the Clerk and Recorder’s office to carry out its duties.
“If that's not respected by the administration, then council has to be notified of that obligation,” said López, a former council member for District 3.
A written response from Council President Amanda Sandoval wasn’t very receptive to including the elections facility in future revisions to the bond, noting the city’s capital improvement fund could bankroll the project one day. However, negotiations are underway and council members could make changes before passing the measure to voters.
While the city priced the facility at about $43 million, López said its inclusion wouldn’t cost that much. He brought up another criticism of the bond — costs associated with each project were allegedly overinflated.
A revised list of bond projects was released by the mayor’s office Friday, but it did not include the clerk’s proposal. Denver City Council is set to discuss the bill further next week, when Department of Finance staff present an official proposal to a council committee.
