Carbondale leaders plan sustained outreach, schedule volunteer training ahead of April municipal election

Town Clerk (Speaker 3) told residents at the meeting that Carbondale will mount a sustained voter-outreach campaign aimed at Spanish-speaking residents and younger voters and that candidates can begin picking up signature petitions ahead of the April municipal election.

“I would really like to focus on making sure our Latin community… knows about the elections, knows what we're voting on, how to be engaged,” Speaker 3 said, urging the board to help coordinate events through October. She said candidates must collect 25 signatures to get on the April ballot and that petition circulation dates include a January circulation window the clerk referenced during the meeting.

The outreach plan calls for a mix of tactics: volunteer registration drives where trained circulators collect completed forms for delivery to the clerk and recorder, pop-up tables at existing community events, small printed cards with QR codes directing residents to vote.colorado.gov, and expanded social-media or messaging outreach. Speaker 3 proposed collecting forms at events so the paperwork is submitted correctly and not misplaced.

On technical details, the meeting reviewed eligibility and verification procedures. Speaker 3 explained basic voter and candidate requirements — voters must be 18 and U.S. citizens, the clerk said, and candidates must meet residency thresholds including at least one year of town residency prior to running; the meeting also noted Colorado allows preregistration at age 16 so young people are automatically registered when they turn 18. The clerk added that the Secretary of State’s office conducts final verification of submitted registrations.

Organizers agreed to deliver volunteer training on voter-registration drives to teach circulators what forms and IDs are acceptable. Speaker 3 estimated training “usually takes about, like, half an hour… maybe an hour” and accepted a proposal to plan the training at the next meeting or during an agreed date in early February.

Participants spent considerable time on communications strategy. Some attendees reported failures with the ReachWell notification system — “I haven't gotten a single notification through ReachWell,” Speaker 2 said — and recommended using WhatsApp as a low-friction channel many residents already use. As a compromise, speakers proposed preparing ReachWell notices (including Spanish-language links) and copying those translated links into WhatsApp so staff could reuse content rather than re-create it.

The group also discussed outreach logistics such as whether volunteers should ask about citizenship before offering a form (attendees agreed to avoid improper canvassing and follow state rules), the need to confirm which IDs are accepted at registration, and how to clear volunteer cleanup or outreach activities with county authorities when events involve county property.

Next steps listed at the end of the meeting included scheduling the voter-registration training (staff to coordinate dates and materials), creating QR-code handouts pointing to the Secretary of State’s registration page, and adding the clerk’s contact information to the meeting minutes and the town website. Speaker 3 said she would begin preparing materials and asked attendees to continue brainstorming event opportunities.

The clerk and community members did not take formal votes on policy at the meeting; rather, they agreed on a set of outreach tasks and a training commitment to prepare volunteers ahead of the April municipal election.