By Will Cornelius

The Surveyor

On April 2, Berthoud held its biennial local elections and the results were overwhelming. With 81% of the vote, the ‘I couldn’t be bothered to vote’ party swept all three trustee spots and mayor.

Based on unofficial results, 2,011 ballots were cast in the mayoral race. And according to Larimer County Clerk and Recorder, Tina Harris, the town of Berthoud has 10,538 registered voters.
That means only 19% of registered voters cast a ballot for Berthoud’s next mayor! That’s less than one out of every five people! Berthoud you can do better!

For context, Russia held its presidential elections last month and the turnout was 77%. Sure, those numbers are fraudulent to an extent. But even autocracies like Vladimir Putin’s Russia understand the importance of a high turnout, to legitimize an election.

It’s not like we can’t do better. During the 2022 midterms, turnout in Colorado was 58%. The low turnout in Berthoud’s April elections is a disappointing result for a town that people are so passionate about preserving and promoting.
All seven candidates in the most recent election were profiled in these pages. We at the Surveyor also made podcasts so that you could hear what potential mayoral or trustee candidates think about growth or bringing jobs to Berthoud.

We put on a town board forum that was open to the public to ask the candidates questions. We did not do this to fill up pages or because there was nothing else to report on that week. We did this because elections have consequences.

Compound that with Berthoud’s rapid growth and it becomes incredibly important who sits on the town board.

The Board of Trustees regularly annexes land into the town, gives final approval on new developments, approves (or delays indefinitely) oil and gas regulations, buys water shares, creates policy about mosquito spraying in summer, oversees and contracts for public services like law enforcement and animal control, on top of many, many other duties.

All this is to say, what the town board does is important and thus is important to Berthoud. So if you live in Berthoud it should be important to you. And we know it is to many of you.

But why did so few people vote then? It is a question we wish we knew the answer to because it is our job to understand what is going on in Berthoud.

Local elections always struggle with turnout and a relative lack of scandal or controversy in Berthoud’s town governance may have left many apathetic about voting.

But does that mean that only a fifth of the town cares about what happens in Berthoud? Is everyone else indifferent if the town board approves a 4,000 multi-family home development next to Interstate-25? Because that could happen with the Wilson Ranch development now known as Turion.

No one has a crystal ball for the future. But Berthoud’s future entails more people than in its past. The decisions made today will have lasting impacts well into the future.

We urge people to become more engaged with Berthoud and help shape its future. And the most impactful way for many is to vote!