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11 01 24 Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on the ballot length and voting system security
But there's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. At Sprouts Farmers Market, we're all about fresh, healthy, and delicious. Step into our bulk department to discover a world of options with hundreds of scoopable bulk bins and grab-and-go favorites. From wholesome grains and spices to limited-time goodies like pumpkin apple cashews and butter toffee peanuts. Plus buying in bulk means you can get as much or as little as you like for your next recipe or snack attack. Visit your neighborhood Sprouts Farmers Market today, or fly for fills every scoop. It is Colorado's Morning News. It's that time on Friday where we have our weekly conversation with Denver's Mayor. Yeah, days before the November 5th election, this weekend is going to be a busy one for those dropping off their ballots throughout the city. Joining us now on the KOA Common Spirit Hotline is Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for your time as always. You're back. Good morning, Jim. It took me, honestly, about two hours to walk through our whole six-page city ballot, do my research, cast my vote, which obviously is important for all voters and residents to be doing. But do you have any concerns about the length of the ballot this year that some people may just bypass some of the ballot initiatives, the amendments, some of the smaller races and not be focused on it because of the length? I am very concerned about that. I think I've already talked with the City Council President about how we look at ways to potentially contain the size of the ballot. And as you know, there are statewide measures, there are local measures, there are regional measures. So all sorts of different governments have put them on. But we know it is. Yeah. I joke it's kind of like the last Harry Potter book where he had to break it into two movies because it takes so long. You know, this one requires two sittings, a lot of folks to get through. But there are really important issues on this ballot, and so we encourage everyone to vote through the whole thing. Obviously, we think the Affordable Housing Measure is the most important thing on this ballot given that 90% of gun rights are saying they're worried about being able to afford to live in the city anymore. And so I'm actually out here with cold hands, the honking wave on first in university waiving it voters in the way in because you can't mail the ballots and anymore got to drop them off. But we want to make sure everybody gets in votes. Before we get into some of the specifics of the ballot, Mr. Mayor, hindsight always being 2020. If looking back now, do you think folks looking at the ballot, maybe in the future will say, we have all these initiatives, but maybe we have to peel back some because of what we said, because there is so many of them to get through. Yeah, I think people ought to be more strategic about not over cluttering a ballot, give people a core set of key issues to look at each year because, you know, they expect the representative government to do a lot of this on their own. So they expect to be counsel of the state legislature to work through this stuff rather than sending a lot to people. We know that there are some things in the Colorado Constitution that require measures to go to the ballot. So things like taxes under table do have to go to the ballot. So the other thing we can get done without having to go to the ballot will come. You were passing out candy for trick-or-treaters last night as well as a flyer saying yes on measure to our when it comes to that measure. Is there any plan B's? Are there any other options if we find outcome next week that it did not pass? You know, we always will find a way forward, but it will be a very difficult scenario for the city. I think we know we need to bring about four or five thousand units of affordable housing on each year without this we're going to do about a third of that. And so I think that would mean we'd have a 20, 30,000 families who we know will be pushed out of the city because they just won't be able to pay the rent anymore. So I think the real question is we don't want to be in a scenario where five years now we're sitting around saying, I remember that neighbor we used to have, I remember that server we used to love our local restaurant, I remember that teacher that was your kid's favorite. They've all moved out of Denver. I think that's what we're now willing to what happened. That's why we're fighting so hard. What about measure 2Q about money for Denver health? I say this about Denver health, and I mean this in the best way. They are truly the last line of defense in many ways, take on many of society's ills that can't be handled in the normal way of providing health. Are you concerned that that's going to get passed? You know, I've been supportive of that measure, we've been working closely with Denver Health on it. We think they're a critical safety net for the city and we are optimistic the voters will support them because we know that people, you know, when you get hit by car and accident or you have a seizure or working, you end up in an ambulance, you want to get low-class chair and that's what Denver Health provides. Mr. Mayor, when it comes to the referred question for 2T, the one that removes citizenship requirements for police and firefighters, I learned and correct me if I'm wrong that Denver Sheriff's Department already has this requirement removed. So is this something you support and why is Denver police and firefighters not involved in this already? I do, it's one of those that just, we hadn't yet aligned across safety departments to be clear for folks that are wondering, this is not if someone is a newcomer that just arrives to the city from Venezuela, are they able to be a firefighter or a police officer, not at all. This is someone who's been here for decades who already has status, they probably have a green card, they already have work permits, they've been living in the city for decades and they want to serve their city and their country, we think that's a great instinct, we want to serve the city, we're trying to get more and more diverse leaders into both our fire department and our police department, so we think it is a good opportunity to expand our population of safety staff and to get people who want the job to be into the job, but yeah, that has just been an historical oversight with mixing. Conversely, well I guess maybe inversely the same way, there's needs in those departments, right? And this is another opportunity to fill jobs that maybe aren't getting filled, is that would that be a correct assessment? Absolutely, we are working hard to add more officers, we're going to try to add another 168 this year, almost 300 over two years, and so we want to expand the pipeline of folks who feel called to want to serve, and then what we've learned to do better that is for us. It's going to be a very busy weekend of a lot of people last minute dropping off of ballots, but also in the news, a top story that we've seen throughout our state, your initial reaction to the partial leak of the voting system passwords that we saw from the Secretary of State's office. Yeah, obviously worried about that, the good news is I think is all the news has responsibly made clear, no voter centers were threatened, no data has been compromised, those are all two password systems, you have to have a password on site plus a different password, so I don't think anyone should be worried that their vote is at risk, or that the election won't be verified or protected, but obviously I know they fixed and both things happen, but glad that we've got to fix. What are citizens telling you about how they feel about the election, about the integrity and security of it? What feedback do you hear from them? I get very good feedback about people's trust in the safety and reliability of the election here. I was part of the effort to push to vote by mail almost 10 years ago, and it's been a great result for Colorado, especially Jean, at your point, when you got a long ballot. Imagine working through that ballot in a voting booth, that the ability to sit down to your kitchen table, talk to friends, talk to your spouse, look up and do research, people really like to vote by mail, they like the ability to drop it off, they know they're stable and secure, and so I think Colorado is done a great job of building a real safe and accessible vote in just a minute, that will help us. We were the second highest turnout state in the country, the last presidential, I'm hoping we had finished first on this one, we lost the Washington, we lost the Seahawks once, let's see if we're all going to want to lose them any again. Mr. Mayor, I'm wrapping up with you and going off of that, I guess, as the leader of the Bonix bandwagon, your reaction to Nix being named NFL offensive rookie of the month. Fantastic, I think I'm most mad about it, I'm not a sports better, but I knew when the season started and they had us at a total win of five and a half, that was the stupidest bet there was, I knew we were going to do better than that, and yeah, just feel great about the prospects. I also did promise, I was at the middle school Boys and Girls Club tackle football city championships last weekend, and saw that Owen Yellowjackets win the title, I told him I would get them big airtime on KLA to announce the victory, so congrats to all the kids from Owen Yellow Love it, we're in, maybe we can get the coach on and talk about his strategy. You were very impressive, I almost cried, listen to his post came to me. Denver Mayor Mike Johnson, thanks so much. You're a bad child, thanks for having me. There's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. Member FDIC.