My ballot arrived today, and I imagine if yours isn't in your mailbox yet it will be within a few days. You won't receive one if you aren't registered to vote at your current address, but that's easy to fix! You can register online, (or, if you prefer at the Jefferson County Election Department, the Golden City Clerk’s office, and the DMV driver’s license examination facility). The deadline is Monday, October 30.
If you want to make sure you are registered at your current address, that’s easy to do as well.
And the deadline for your ballot to be received is 7pm on Tuesday, November 7. I would either hand deliver it to City Hall (911 10th St. in Golden) or to the Jefferson County building, or mail it by November 2 at the latest.
I know it's easy to ignore off-cycle elections, but it's not that unusual for our City Council races to be decided by a small number of votes, which means your vote in this election is probably much more influential than in the big Congressional and state races. In addition, we have some important school board races and an important local ballot measure.
If you aren’t sure what ward you live in, here’s the map (.pdf download). Here is some background info on the election. This month’s issue of the Informer has candidate profiles as well. And in case you missed it, the October 5 City Council Candidate Forum is available online.
Here are the candidates:
Ward 1
• Robert W. Reed
• Micah Allen
Ward 2
• Deborah Ann Deal
• Paul Haseman
• Daniel Sung
• Josh Thompson
Ward 3
• Jim Dale
Ward 4
• Mikey Sheridan
• Laura Weinberg
Finally, if my endorsements are helpful to you here you go:
Golden City Council Ward 4: Laura Weinberg
I happen to live in Ward 4 and am endorsing Laura Weinberg, our current Ward 4 representative, for a second four-year term. Laura is super smart, thoughtful, and takes her role on the Council seriously. In my experience she tries to find sensible solutions to some of our thornier challenges and she’s willing to hear people out and think through ideas she hadn’t thought of. And she’s willing to respectfully and professionally push back against city staff and other members of the Council when she sees things differently or thinks some concerns aren’t getting the attention they deserve. It’s really helpful to have a City Council that works well together, but it’s also important to have individual Councilors who have the self-confidence and gumption to ask hard questions.
I’m not endorsing anyone in the other wards, but I will say that I’ve known Jim Dale (the only Ward 3 candidate) for a long time. I respect him for his intelligence, his experience, and commitment to Golden, and I think he’ll work hard and do a good job as a City Councilor. I will also add that Rob Reed (running in Ward 2) reached out, and over coffee it seemed like he could bring a good mix of experience and thoughtfulness to the Council. While I've met some the Ward 1 and Ward 2 candidates I don't really know any of them. And I can’t encourage everyone strongly enough … take a little bit of time to research the candidates in your ward, email or call them with questions or just to hear about why they’re running, go to the candidate forum tomorrow night or watch it on Channel 8, and then vote.
City of Golden Ballot Measure Allowing Solar at Rooney Road Sports Complex: Support
This one is pretty straightforward. If this ballot measure passes, Golden (in conjunction with Jeffco) will be able to set up a community solar garden on some of the land at the Rooney Road Sports Complex that’s not currently being used for sports fields. There is no downside that I can see and plenty of upside. There is a bit more information on the city's website.
Jefferson County School Board: Brad Rupert, Susan Harmon, and Ron Mitchell
After a tough stretch, the Jeffco School Board is looking really strong. They hired a competent and widely respected superintendent and they’ve managed to guide Jeffco schools into a period of relative stability and progress. These three folks - all up for reelection - get a lot of the credit. This is a solid group of school board members and I’m supporting all three.