Less than 24 hours after Denver Mayor Mike Johnston delivered his 2026 budget proposal to the city, Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul López has called for the City Council to consider an amendment to the mayor’s spending plan that would increase funding for his office.

Johnston’s proposal for the coming year did not include the $4.5 million López has said is “necessary to run our elections in 2026,” and is asking councilmembers for help.

“Our ask is that an amendment be proposed and move forward through the process of $4.5 million to restore what we need to be able to continue to provide the services to voters all around the state, or not all around the state, but all around the state,” López told reporters on Tuesday.

He said the additional funding is intended to ensure voter access, noting that the cost of that effort is increasing. 

This includes a 9% rise in voter registration, a 30% increase in the cost of printing and mailing ballots, and the impact of Denver’s minimum wage increase.

“In a post-January 6 environment, we are now seeing what I thought was the unthinkable, that the greatest threat to democracy in Denver, Colorado, is not coming from the Trump administration’s bombastic threats, but instead the realistic cuts from Denver’s own man, right here in our backyard,” López said. “We didn’t prepare for the last six years to defend this election system, to defend our right to the ballot box, just to be stabbed in the back in our own backyard.” 

López has long argued that the Denver Charter requires the City Council to
“appropriate sufficient funds to the Clerk and Recorder to enable the Clerk and Recorder to fulfill any duty or meet any requirement or obligation imposed by state law upon a county clerk and recorder, including, by way of example, any duty to record deeds and other instruments affecting title to real property in a timely and efficient manner.”

So, what would a $4.5 million shortfall mean for elections? 

According to López, a reduction in voter drop boxes and polling centers “to the bare minimum required by state law.”

Without the additional funding, López said, for the primary election, the city will have to close 12 of its 17 polling centers and close eight drop boxes, dropping that number from 46 to 38.

For the general and midterm elections, he said, the city would lose one of its 39 polling places, as well as close to 300 election judges who are paid Denver’s minimum wage to ensure elections are conducted fairly, securely and in accordance with local and state laws.

In response, a Johnston spokesperson said that several conversations with López about working through the budget difficulties were “non-starters.”

“This budget is down to the studs; there’s nothing left to cut,” Johnston spokesperson Jon Ewing said.

The mayor has stated that the budget he has presented is a “balanced budget” as required by the city charter and preserves the city’s core services.

“If there are any amendments to the budget that add cuts to any of the departments,” Johnston said, “those would directly either cut these core services because there is nothing left to cut in these departments from what has currently been done without affecting these core services or affecting layoffs, which is why we think it’s really critical for all the public to know about that in the process ahead.”

During a July 28 Denver City Council meeting, District 7 Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez had sought a last-minute amendment to include a new elections facility that López wanted in the $950 million bond package, which will go to voters this November.

The amendment failed. 

If there is no budget amendment, he said, his agency plans to “do the best we can to inform voters of what to expect in the primary November election.” 

Members of the City Council are mulling over the proposed budget plan and will hold formal budget meetings during the week of Sept. 22.

The city will host a required public hearing on the budget on Oct. 27.

The City Council must pass a budget by Nov. 10.