Voters will decide on local and state issues and choose school board members Tuesday in Montezuma County.
With ballot issue 4A, Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 is seeking a property tax increase, in part to raise teachers’ salaries.
With ballot issue 6A, the Cortez Fire Protection District is asking voter permission to offset revenue losses from changes to the percentage of actual assessed property valuations by increasing its operating mill levy beginning in 2021.
The Mancos Re-6 and Dolores Re-4A school districts have contested board elections.
In Mancos, three board seats are open. The terms for directors Pamela A. Coppinger and Timothy J. Hunter are up, and both are seeking reelection. The third open seat was held by former Treasurer Ed Whritner, who resigned to take a job with the district.
Candidates for the three open seats include Hunter, Coppinger, Nick Manning, Tressa J. Jukes, Bridgett Jabour, Katie Cahill-Volpe, Adam F. Priestley and Gina Love.
In Dolores, six candidates are running for three open seats on the Re-4A Board of Education in November. Terms are up for board members Deanna Truelsen and Vangi McCoy. The third seat is held by Treasurer Lenetta Shull, who was appointed to serve out a board vacancy, and she is running to retain her seat.
The candidates running are Shull, Joe “Spark” Reed, Phil Kasper, Clay Tallmadge, Maegan Crowley and Alex Prime.
Voters also will determine the fate of two state questions on the ballot.
Proposition CC asks voters to allow the state to keep all the tax revenue it collects after June 2019 that the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights would otherwise send back to residents as refunds.
Proposition DD asks voters for state taxes to be increased by $29 million annually to fund state water projects and to pay for the regulation of sports betting through licensed casinos by authorizing a tax on sports betting.
About 17,000 ballots were mailed out for the election, said Montezuma County Clerk Kim Percell.
As of Monday, 5,757 ballots had been returned, 2,598 by mail and 3,150 by drop box.
Of the ballots sent out, 832 were returned as undeliverable, and many of those voters came in to correct their address and received a ballot replacement.
It is too late to mail ballots; they must be dropped off at the ballot box by 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Statistically, the Monday before Election Day has the highest rate of ballot returns, Percell said.
All four 24-hour drop boxes are open, including those at Dolores Town Hall, Mancos Town Hall, Ute Mountain Tribal Headquarters in Towaoc and at the Montezuma County Clerk’s Office. The boxes will be closed at 7 p.m. Nov. 5.
The Motor Vehicle and Recording departments will be closed on Nov. 5 to allow those deputies to help with the election.
