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High Desert Conservation District, Montezuma County Wrangle Over Costs of Canceled Election

Austin Cope

At Monday’s Montezuma County Commission meeting, representatives of the High Desert Conservation District and the County tried to determine who will cover the costs of the District’s botched special election.

The District had planned a mail election for Tuesday to ask voters for a half-mill levy. It was the first time it had asked voters to help fund its services. But it canceled the election last week because many eligible voters reportedly had not received ballots. District board member Steve Miles said the postage and legal costs for the failed election could exceed $25,000.

 

Miles said it is the responsibility of the clerk and the assessor to provide the correct list of registered voters. But he also added he was not there to place blame. Clerk Kim Percell agreed that some of the blame was hers, but not all. She said the District had failed to provide her some crucial information in a timely manner.

 

Commissioner Larry Don Suckla weighed in, saying he would never vote to pay for what he called the district’s mistake.

 

Representatives of the clerk’s and assessor’s offices, the county mapping department, and the district have scheduled another meeting to negotiate further details.

 

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
Austin Cope is a former Morning Edition host for KSJD and now produces work on a freelance basis for the station. He grew up in Cortez and hosted a show on KSJD when he was 10 years old. After graduating from Montezuma-Cortez High School in 2010, he lived in Belgium, Ohio, Spain, northern Wyoming, and Himachal Pradesh, India before returning to the Cortez area. He has a degree in Politics from Oberlin College in Ohio.
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