At the Montezuma County Republican Assembly Friday, three county commissioner candidates had enough delegate votes to make the June 30 primary ballot, and one did not.
Candidates needed at least 30% percent of the delegate vote to make the ballot.
For District 2, Danny Wilkin and Kent Lindsay both had enough votes to make the ballot. Of the 169 delegate votes cast, Wilkin earned 115, or 68% of the vote. Lindsay had 54 votes, or 32% of the vote.
In District 3, 179 votes were cast. Monty Guiles made the ballot with 134 votes, or 75%. Tim Hunter had 35 votes, or 19%, which was not enough to qualify for the primary ballot.
For the 22nd Judicial District Attorney race, Republican Matt Margeson, the current assistant DA, qualified for the primary ballot as the only candidate for the position. The assembly was held in a modified format to comply with state restrictions on public gatherings. During the March 7 caucus, 184 Republican delegates were appointed to attend the county assembly.
Two commissioner candidates — Allan Randolph for District 2, and Joel Stevenson for District 3 — chose the petition process for getting on the primary ballot, instead of the caucus process.
They collected signatures from county Republicans and turned in their petitions by the March 17 deadline, said county election deputy Miranda Warren.
Stevenson is required to gather 787 signatures, and Randolph 804 signatures, Warren said. The clerk’s office has 10 days to process the petitions to determine whether they met the signature requirements to get on the primary ballot.
It was a very different scene at this year’s Republican county assembly. On March 19, Gov. Jared Polis ordered that all gatherings be limited to no more than 10 people in a room to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Normally the county assembly is a vibrant event at the County Annex that includes speeches from candidates. But to comply with Polis’ order, delegates were spread out at 11 precinct locations containing no more than 10 people per room.
Each delegate had a ballot and listened to the assembly via a phone conference. Some delegates also sat in their vehicles in the parking lots, and others participated from home. Ballots from precincts were delivered to the county annex to be counted.
“Delegates will be participating in the assembly remotely,” said Casey McClellan, chair of the Montezuma County Republican Committee, before the event. “This is going to be different, but we figured it out and see no reason why it won’t work.”
At the county annex, candidates gave speeches to a crowd of no more than 10 and were broadcast over the phone conference.
U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, challenger Lauren Boebert of Rifle and state Rep. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose, gave speeches remotely via the phone conference. In another room, fewer than 10 people listened in via phone conference. Others gathered in the parking lot or dialed in from in their vehicles.
jmimiaga@the-journal.com
