Commentary: Why I'm Voting, but Not for Either Mayoral Candidate

Ballots are being mailed out on Monday, and this one will be returned without a choice for Denver mayor, as an "under-vote."

By Tom Morris

May 13, 2023

Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough are in the runoff. Evan Semón Photography

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I’m really disappointed in the mayoral runoff candidates this year. The two successful candidates combined received less than 45 percent of the votes during the April election.

I was pretty good at arithmetic, and I am struck that more than 55 percent of the city did not vote for more Hickencock. They voted for change.

I suspect that the successful candidates had more money than all the other candidates combined. They each had a money source that has business with the city.

The donors are people who are developers of this and that. My experience with rich donors is that they view their “donations” as their civic duty and as an investment. As I understand investments, they are based on a focused interest in more money.

I strongly believe the “Let’s-all-run-for-mayor!” election is a dismal failure. None of the subsidized candidates had anywhere close to the amounts spent by the successful candidates.

That was an election on the auction block. The two candidates are shoveling their positions out of the Hickencock workbooks…in unison.

For the first time in my life, I don’t care which candidate wins. I don’t want any more mindless densification and the destruction of low-income neighborhoods that have survived by virtue of the community that served its residents. A community that found ways over the decades to make it better when neighbors needed help. A community that was then exploded across the city by densification.

I’m not going to vote in the mayor part of my ballot. I’m going to send my message by becoming an “under-vote,” which is what the Denver Elections Division calls the lack of a vote on any candidate or issue when a ballot is turned in. They are counted as votes and their number published.

I will be counted by the Denver Clerk and Recorder as someone who couldn’t vote for either candidate. The final vote count will list me as a voter who cared enough to vote, but not for more Hickencock.

I’ll be an under-vote. Join me if this makes sense to you. If you have a choice between the candidates, by all mean, vote for your preference. But if you can’t sort them out, be an under-vote.

Otherwise, tell the winner that the 55 percent of us who didn’t vote for more Hickencock do not support the new mayor.

Tom Morris is a fourth-generation Denverite and a retired architect concerned about the future of his hometown.

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