A legal battle has started in Colorado Springs. About voting.  

The League of Women Voters and Citizens Project have filed a lawsuit accusing our city government of violating the Colorado Voting Rights Act. They argue that Colorado Springs’ election structure has disproportionately affected minority participation. 

Basically, they claim our local voting system is racist.” I can’t take this idea seriously.  

There is an important distinction getting blurred in this public conversation. There is a difference between saying a law is written as a race-based voting rights law and saying the politics surrounding it are nonpartisan. 

Those are not the same thing. Anything written race-based is partisan. And we all know which party. 

The coalition behind Colorado’s Voting Rights Act was overwhelmingly Democratic, liberal and progressive. Organizations supporting the law – including the ACLU of Colorado and the League of Women Voters – generally align with the political left on election policy issues.  

That is the political reality. Acknowledging them is not extremism.  

I’m just not sure there has been any wrongdoing at the ballot box.  

You see, Colorado Springs does not publicly publish turnout data by race. There is no official data set proving that Black or Hispanic voters participated at dramatically lower rates in the recent municipal election.  

Instead, the claim appears to rely largely on statistical modeling and demographic inference. There is proven national science research showing that off-cycle elections generally produce lower turnout than national election cycles.  

We do know that Colorado Springs’ recent special election saw participation around 24.5%. But low turnout alone is not proof of discrimination. Off-cycle elections affect everyone regardless of race. 

And off-cycle elections run on something increasingly uncommon in modern politics: direct voter engagement. Without the momentum of presidential races and nonstop national media coverage driving public attention, political organizations must work harder to educate voters, build relationships, and persuade citizens to participate. 

This lawsuit strikes me as sheer laziness. I see some folks who need to just do the hard work of political organizing in the off cycle.  

But the advocates behind this lawsuit want the shortcut of structural changes. They want the system to increase turnout automatically by aligning local elections with larger national cycles.  

Advocates like me believe local elections should run on direct voter engagement, neighborhood-level organizing, and sustained civic participation outside the noise of national politics.  

That is a legitimate policy debate. But it is different from claiming a proven civil rights violation.  

As a Black woman, I approach this conversation very carefully. 

The original federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 emerged from a painful period in American history marked by directly observable barriers to voting: literacy tests, intimidation, segregated access, and outright obstruction. And those observable, easily proven barriers were removed.  

These modern disparate-impact frameworks operate differently. Supporters believe that if a system consistently produces unequal outcomes, the system itself deserves scrutiny -even absent clear intent to racially discriminate. 

Critics like me see this issue differently. Racial discrimination involves identifiable acts, policies, or intentional barriers not just unequal statistical outcomes. Otherwise, virtually any disparity can be interpreted as evidence of systemic wrongdoing.  

Which seems to be what is happening here. Colorado’s Voting Rights Law relies more heavily on statistical modeling and inferred participation patterns than direct observation of any racial exclusion. 

Which I completely disagree with.  

Statistical analysis can be useful. But inference is only interpretation, not direct observation. And when legal consequences follow, the standard of proof matters. 

This standard is suspicious.  

If Colorado Springs ultimately loses this lawsuit, it won’t be for actual wrongdoing. As far as we know, there have been no instances of intentional racial discrimination during voting. Which was what voting laws rightfully prevent.  

As a remedy for agreement with this kind of “inference” – our city would be forced into a structural election cycle redesigned to produce higher turnout.  Municipal elections would move into larger November voting cycles.  

A move that may favor Democrat campaigns.  

Let’s just tell the truth. Choosing not to vote is not the same thing as being prevented from voting. Our local election systems should not be reshaped under this deceptive approach to voting rights.  

Hopefully this lawsuit will not win. 

Rachel Stovall is a Colorado Springs event manager, entertainer and community advocate.