Town attorney presented an overview of planned revisions to Castle Rock’s municipal election rules at the Sept. 27 meeting of the Castle Rock Elections Commission, saying staff are working with the town clerk and outside counsel to simplify the town code and fill gaps for locally administered matters.

The attorney said the proposal is to adopt, by reference, the state coordinated-election provisions (Title 1, Articles 1–13 of the Colorado election code) for elections run with the county and to rely on the Uniform Municipal Election Code (Title 31, Article 10) if Castle Rock must run its own special municipal elections. “We’re working on it,” the town attorney said.

The attorney identified three areas for more-local rules rather than simple reference to state law: campaign-finance limits tied to the Colorado Fair Campaign Practices Act, a third-party complaint and cure process for initiative, referendum and nominating petitions, and specific procedures for charter questions and recall petitions. He said the Secretary of State’s office has told the town it will not review municipal petitions, so the town needs a clear administrative process to evaluate and, where appropriate, give petitioners an opportunity to cure defects.

Commissioners and Councilman Dietz asked whether enforcement of alleged election offenses would remain at the county level when elections are coordinated with Douglas County. The town attorney said coordinated elections are run by the county clerk and recorder and any county-level election offenses would be handled through the county sheriff and district attorney. By contrast, he said, offenses arising in a town-run special election would be handled locally by the Castle Rock Police Department and municipal court if prosecution were required.

The attorney said the municipal election offenses currently in the town code closely mirror state law and that, by incorporating the municipal election code, the town would bring those offenses into alignment with the applicable state provisions.

Why this matters: the proposed approach aims to reduce duplication and confusion by relying on state models for coordinated elections while ensuring the town has a local procedural framework for petitions, recalls and any municipal elections it runs.

Next steps: the town attorney said staff will draft concrete ordinance language and procedural rules for the commission and council to review, including proposed language on campaign-finance exceptions and a third-party complaint/cure process for petitions.