Colorado Springs' elections discriminate, groups say

Even before this year's midterm election is over, Colorado voting rights groups are targeting Colorado Springs' 2027 municipal election.

Why it matters: The Springs faces the first legal test of Colorado's new Voting Rights Act, with advocates alleging the city's odd-year April elections disproportionately suppress Black and Hispanic voter turnout.

• The lawsuit could force the city to move its municipal elections to November — and set a precedent for how Colorado's 2025 voting rights law is used against local election systems.

Driving the news: A coalition of voting rights groups, led by Common Cause Colorado and the League of Women Voters of the Pikes Peak Region, recently sued the city over the timing of its elections, alleging it violates election practices that create a "material disparity" in voter participation among protected classes.

By the numbers: The plaintiffs cite data from the city's last six local elections, from 2017 through 2025, showing average turnout at:

• 18.1% of Black registered voters
• 17.8% of Hispanic registered voters
• 34% of white registered voters

Zoom in: The lawsuit says the racial gap shrinks in November even-year elections. In those elections, the voting rights organizations say average turnout was:

• 61.2% among Black registered voters
• 63.6% among Hispanic registered voters
• 79.1% among white registered voters

The suit argues that moving city elections to November would reduce the disparity and create a more representative electorate because off-cycle elections are easier to miss, less visible and less connected to voting habits built around the November elections.

The other side: Springs officials say the lawsuit attacks the city's home-rule authority and ignores the benefits of keeping municipal races separate from national politics.

• Mayor Yemi Mobolade said the current system helps local issues stand on their own instead of being drowned out by presidential, congressional and statewide races.

• Wayne Williams, Mobolade's chief of staff and a former Colorado secretary of state, argued that lower turnout may be tied to the nonpartisan nature of municipal elections, where voters cannot rely on party labels.

What they're saying: "I find it extremely troubling when people claim that the very election system that elected Colorado Springs' first Black mayor is somehow inherently exclusionary," Mobolade told KRCC.

Between the lines: This isn't the first legal fight about Colorado Springs' election calendar.

• The League of Women Voters of the Pikes Peak Region and Citizens Project lost a case in court because it lacked standing to challenge the timing of the city's election under the federal Voting Rights Act.

The bottom line: The case isn't just about Colorado Springs. It's about how far the state can go in regulating local elections for constitutionally protected home-rule cities.