Ending the term limit on Rio Blanco County's clerk and recorder

The Colorado Constitution makes each county clerk "ex officio recorder of deeds and clerk of the board of county commissioners." Voters elect the clerk to a four-year term. State election law names the clerk and recorder "the chief election official for the county." The same law directs the clerk, in deciding questions under the election code, to consult the Secretary of State and follow the Secretary's rules and orders, and it lets a deputy clerk exercise all of the clerk's election powers when the clerk is absent or unable to perform the duties. This November's ballot lists one candidate for Rio Blanco County clerk and recorder, Republican Shawn Luce.

Article XVIII, Section 11 of the state constitution limits an elected county official to two consecutive terms "to broaden the opportunities for public service and to assure that elected officials of governments are responsive to the citizens of those governments." Terms at least four years apart do not count as consecutive, and a county's voters may "lengthen, shorten or eliminate" the limit.

In 1999 Rio Blanco County voters removed term limits for all elected county officials. In 2020 the commissioners put a separate question for each office on the ballot, and the Daily Sentinel later reported that voters reinstated two four-year terms for the clerk, the assessor, the treasurer and the commissioners.

The certified question reads: "Shall the Clerk and Recorder for Rio Blanco County be allowed, if elected by the registered electors of Rio Blanco County, to serve an unlimited number of consecutive terms?"

A yes vote lets the clerk and recorder hold the office for any number of consecutive terms; the clerk still has to win each one at an election. A no vote keeps the limit of two consecutive terms. The question involves no tax or spending and names no end date.

Questions 1A, 1B and 1D ask the same of the assessor, the treasurer and the commissioners. The result on 1C settles the clerk and recorder's limit whatever happens to the other three.

Several Rangely residents said the limits deter qualified people from running in so small a county. Business owner Rodger Polley objected, with commissioner seats chiefly in mind, that without limits leadership could become entrenched and public trust could fall. In Meeker on May 5, Christine Hicken, a former county employee who has long served as an election judge, said limits can erode the continuity and expertise of offices that carry complex duties set by statute, elections most of all, and that voters should decide whether officials stay in office. The commissioners talked about how hard it is to recruit and keep qualified candidates.