Tomorrow, April 4, Colorado Springs voters will elect four City Council members and a mayor and decide whether to extend the Trails, Open Space and Park tax for 20 years.
Seems like all that is fairly important, given the challenges the city faces, including a shortage of housing, a seemingly growing homeless population, city streets that need work, and a dearth of police officers despite additional funding.
But alas, only 18.15 percent of the roughly 311,000 voters had cast ballots by April 1. Of those 56,595 who’ve voted, only 6.6 percent of that tally came from voters in District 4, the city’s most diverse district that covers the southeast sector.
As we reported last week, this election could wind up with the lowest participation ever, unless tens of thousands of ballots are turned in within the next 31 hours or so.
That means that, based on the number who voted through April 1, someone could be elected mayor to run the city for four years with as few as 28,300 votes. (A candidate has to get one vote more than 50 percent to win on April 4. If not, the two top vote-getters will compete in a runoff in mid-May.)
In light of all this, we have just one word for citizens: Vote.
That’s so important, we’ll repeat it: Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote.