MARCH 6, 2025 | NEWS | By Lorelei Smillie
CC Votes and New Era Colorado held a panel titled “Why Local Elections Matter” on Wednesday, March 5 with local leaders from Colorado to discuss the importance of voting in municipal elections. The event occurred ahead of the upcoming City Council election on April 1.
Speakers included Steph Vigil, the interim Executive Director of Citizens Project and former state representative for Colorado HD16, Jaxon Hoskinson, the school advocate for Inside Out Youth Services, Jennifer Arreola, the Civic Engagement Manager for the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights and Monica Hughes, the Co-Founder of Pueblo Pro-Choice.
Municipal elections typically have a much lower turnout than the general elections: during the last cycle in 2023, Colorado Springs saw 35% of registered voters cast a vote compared to the general election last November which saw an 80% turnout of registered voters.
“I think there’s kind of this idea that [the city council elections] must not be very exciting stuff. Or they would be with the regular elections, right?” said Vigil.
Although local politics have less glitz and glamour than the presidential races, municipal races can have a higher impact on voters’ day-to-day lives.
“Everything you care about at the national level has a local component that’s even more important. Those people are making immediate, tangible decisions about what you care about,” said Vigil.
Several audience members nodded as the panelists described the challenges in communicating concerns to city council members.
“Elected officials are not royalty: you can go to city council meetings, and you can talk to them,” said Hoskinson.
Although the event was advertised primarily to CC’s student body, the audience was made up mostly of community members. The panelists discussed the general lack of interest in local elections as partially by design.
“There’s something I want to really impress upon everyone here and that is that Colorado Springs elects its city council during a spring municipal election when the voter turnout is appallingly and depressingly low,” said Vigil.
Although presidential elections always happen in November, the date for municipal elections is decided by individual states, so they vary across the United States. This can be confusing for CC students, the majority of whom come from out of state and are used to different election timelines.
Panelists highlighted sentiments of disappointment with the current city council, but urged students to take action if they felt unsatisfied with the status quo.
City council officials “have already been voted into office on a specific agenda, and it’s kind of hard to blame them for fulfilling that agenda. If you want them to be responsive to you, you’ve got to vote, right?” said Vigil.
“Showing up is 80% of what we’re doing here,” said Hughes.
At the end of the event, John Hawk, a CC alum, got up from the audience to publicly thank the speakers.
“I’m a member of the class of 1978, and I studied Political Science here. I have the highest respect for what you’re doing. I’ve been a political activist since 1969, and the City Council hates to see me coming,” said Hawk.