A new challenge is brewing to Colorado Springs’ practice of holding city elections at a different time of year than the state and federal races.

The League of Women Voters of the Pikes Peak Region, Citizens Project and the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School sent a letter to the city Thursday morning. The letter claimed that the city was violating the recently established Colorado Voting Rights Act by holding elections for the mayor and City Council members in April of odd-numbered years, while the major state elections are in November of even-numbered years.

The off-cycle local elections regularly have a much lower turnout than the elections in November. The groups said the drop in turnout was more dramatic for Hispanic and Black voters, to the point that it could count as disenfranchisement.

“This disparity in voter turnout creates a government that frequently declines to act or even acts contrary to the preferences of minority residents,” the letter states.

The election timing is set in Colorado Springs’ city charter and has been in place since the 1870s. The letter asked the City Council and city staff to prepare a charter amendment that would move the election date or risk a lawsuit being filed later this spring.

Colorado Springs spokesman Max D’Onofrio said the city was “reviewing the letter” Friday afternoon but had no other comments.

The same three groups filed a similar lawsuit against the city in 2022, arguing that the April elections were a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

The U.S. District Court for Colorado dismissed the case in 2024 after ruling that none of the groups had standing to sue because they could not prove they had been harmed.

Shelly Roehrs, spokesperson for the League of Women Voters chapter, said that years of voting data showed a drop-off for Black and Hispanic voters in the local elections. Roehrs said the reasons for the racial disparity in turnout didn’t matter for the argument about changing the date.

“We want you to vote in every election, but when the numbers say we only have 50% turnout in the spring, for minority and non-white voters, we have to ask why,” Roehrs said. “And even before we ask why, we want to just solve the problem.”

What has changed to allow the new challenge is the Colorado Voting Rights Act. State lawmakers enacted the new law in 2025 to provide voter protections in the state that groups, including the League of Women Voters, worried about being lost from the federal Voting Rights Act.

The state Voting Rights Act outlawed any local election actions that reduced voter participation for minorities and protected groups, expanded the use of multi-lingual ballots and provided voting access for people in county jails.

One of the explicit goals stated in the legislation was for a law that “protects against discrimination in voting and that encourages local elections to be held in coordination with statewide elections.”

Ruth Greenwood, Director of the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School, said the state law could provide a cleaner path even though it was largely untested since taking effect last year. A 2021 Supreme Court ruling in a case out of Arizona dramatically limited the scope and success of claims under the Voting Rights Act.

Greenwood said that in Colorado, the law provided clear steps to evaluate a violation. An affected group must show evidence that a local election practice, such as the April election date, impacted the turnout of a protected class. The body holding the election would make its case for why the practice was necessary for a governmental interest. If the local government could not prove the need, or the plaintiffs could show an alternative way to meet that goal, then the state could require a change.

“I think it’s fairer for both sides because it’s very clear what the plaintiffs need to show and very clear what the defending city needs to show about why they have a particular policy,” Greenwood said.

The letter gave the city 60 days to respond and show it was working on the change before a potential lawsuit. Roehrs said that during the previous lawsuit, Colorado Springs argued the election date should be a discussion and not a court requirement.

“It’s not automatic litigation. We specifically did what the city wanted from us from the beginning last time. Now we are legally opening the lines of communication,” Roehrs said.

The letter sent Thursday argued that the reduced minority input in local elections had far-reaching effects, including the excessive force lawsuits against the Colorado Springs Police Department, the makeup of the El Paso County Board of Health and the diversity of Colorado Springs School District 11.