Ballot Order For Crowded Denver Mayor's Race Set By Random Draw

By Chase Woodruff, Colorado Newsline

February 8, 2023

Mayoral candidates and their supporters gathered Tuesday night in the lobby of the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office to learn in what order the long list of names will appear on the upcoming municipal ballot — with the outcome determined by strips of paper plucked by elections staff out of a raffle spinner.

Supporters of Lisa Calderón, a progressive activist who placed third in the 2019 mayor’s race, cheered when her name was drawn first from the pot.

Several minutes and 16 names later, Kelly Brough, the former head of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and the race’s top fundraiser, broke into laughter as she realized she would be drawn dead last.

With Mayor Michael Hancock barred from running again after serving three terms, Denver is holding its first wide-open race for mayor in 12 years, presenting voters with a pivotal choice that could set the tone for policymaking in Colorado’s largest city and state capital for the next decade or more. A host of current and former state lawmakers and other veteran political figures are seeking election to an office that has served more than one former occupant as a springboard into national politics.

Ballots for the April 4 municipal election will be mailed to Denver voters beginning on March 13.

The full list of candidates that will appear on the ballot is as follows:

• Lisa Calderón
• Trinidad Rodriguez
• Aurelio Martinez
• Thomas Wolf
• Al Gardner
• Terrance Roberts
• Kwame Spearman
• Renate Behrens
• Chris Hansen
• Mike Johnston
• James Walsh
• Ean Thomas Tafoya
• Andy Rougeot
• Leslie Herod
• Robert Treta
• Deborah “Debbie” Ortega
• Kelly Brough

To qualify for a spot on the ballot, candidates were required to submit valid petition signatures from at least 300 registered Denver voters.

The ballot order determined Tuesday could prove more than academic, especially with voters facing such an extensive list of candidates. Political scientists have for decades observed a “ballot order effect” in U.S. elections, which, though subject to a variety of factors, has been estimated to boost candidates listed first on the ballot by several percentage points.

With such a large field, it’s all but certain that no mayoral candidate will win an outright majority of votes cast in the April 4 election, meaning that the two candidates with the most votes will proceed to a head-to-head runoff election on June 6.

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