A vacancy committee on Saturday took a second try at replacing Rep. Rose Pugliese, the Republican leader who resigned last month.

The GOP committee picked Ava Flanell to replace Pugliese for the northern Colorado Springs House district.

In fact, the vacancy committee also chose Flanell on Sept. 22, but the election was declared invalid by the Secretary of State because of a procedural misstep. The vacancy panel did not wait the required 10 days between posting an announcement of the vacancy meeting and the meeting date, according to the state election office.

Pugliese had resigned on Sept. 15. The vacancy notice went out that day, but the election was conducted just seven days later.

The Oct. 11 meeting drew three candidates, including Flanell and Joe Woyte, who also competed for the vacancy last month.

Woyte received the endorsement of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. Flanell, a firearms instructor and gun store owner, received the backing of the rival Colorado State Shooting Association.

Troy Vander Hule, the third candidate, secured the support of Colorado Right to Life and Rep. Scott Bottoms, R-Colorado Springs.

One notable difference between Sept. 22 and Oct. 11 was that the vacancy committee got larger. There were 54 voting members on Sept. 22, while 65 people voted in Saturday’s meeting.

Like the election in September, it took two rounds to declare a winner.

In the first round, Flanell got 32 votes, Woyte 17 votes and Vander Hule received 16 votes.

Vander Hule then dropped out and endorsed Woyte.

In round two, Flanell took 34 votes and Woyte got 30.

Flanell will serve out the final year of Pugliese’s term. She also filed to run for the HD 14 seat in 2026.

The last three elections have put Republicans in the HD 14 seat with a winning margin of 61%.

Under state law, a vacancy in the legislature must be filled within 30 days. After that, the governor is granted the authority to appoint a replacement.

Gov. Jared Polis fulfilled that responsibility once before. On Oct. 7, 2022, Rep. Tim Geitner, R-Falcon, announced he would not fill out the last three months of his term. He had already announced earlier that year he would not seek another term, so candidates were already lining up to run for the seat.

The House District 19 vacancy committee met on Oct. 29, but it could not come up with a quorum when members of the committee refused to sign in.

On Nov. 9, Polis appointed Don Wilson of Monument to fill out the last two months of Geitner’s term. Wilson won the seat for the 2023-24 session the day before.