Election Information Regarding Chaffee County Commissioner Races
This is meant to be a non-partisan informational news item. I am writing this because I have had feedback from every other county commissioner candidate about this and their experience mirrors mine exactly. There is a lot of confusion about the basic facts and mechanics of the county commissioner races in Chaffee County this year. It has been 4 years since we’ve had a contested race; memory about the process fades and there are many new residents in the county. So here is how it works:
1) There are two county commissioner seats that are being vacated this year due to term limits.
a. District 1, currently held by Dennis Giese, covers most of Buena Vista and the county north of there.
b. District 2, currently held by Frank Holman, covers (generally) the area south of Highway 50, west of 285 from Poncha Pass up to the SW corner of Buena Vista, and east of 285 north of Browns Creek up to Johnson Village, and then east clear up to Trout Creek Pass. It’s a weird one.
2) The county commissioner districts are drawn to be roughly equal in population.
3) The county commissioner seats are geographical districts, and the candidates for each seat must physically reside in the district for which they are running.
4) All Chaffee County voters get to vote for a candidate in each district race. One does not need to live in a district to vote for a commissioner candidate in that district. The seats are geographically distributed so that there is representation from different parts of the county, but any commissioner can represent any voter on an issue, regardless of either of their districts of residence.
5) So, each voter will have two county commissioner races on which to vote this fall. The District 1 race has Brett Mitchell (R) running against Keith Baker (D). The District 2 race has three candidates – Dave Williams (R), Bill Dvorak (D), and Greg Felt (Unaffiliated).
6) The ballots will be mailed to resident voters by the county clerk on October 17.
7) Election day is November 8.
That is about it. If I have missed something, please chime in. And please….VOTE!