S4E6 – Elected, Appointed...Unaffiliated? A Non-Partisan Model of Running for Office with Cristy Lynn in Ouray County, Colorado
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Cristy Lynn, the County Clerk and Recorder in Ouray County, Colorado. She and many of fellow county officials are politically unaffiliated, which means they do not represent or run as a member of either major political party.
They spoke about Lynn’s decision to run unaffiliated, how her community has responded to that decision and why she believes this could be a way to bridge the divisiveness of the current political landscape at the local level.
High Turnout, Wide Margins Credits:
Managing Editor: Rebecca Smith
Managing Producer: Aaron Hay
Associate Producer: Katie Quinn
Digital Producer: Mark Johnson
Transcription of the episode is as follows:
Cristy Lynn: I think the biggest benefit that I see when it comes to my constituents and, and as a whole – I mean, I ran the numbers for the whole state of Colorado today, which, Colorado in general, is 50% unaffiliated. So, I feel like the advantage in having unaffiliated elected officials is that we really are representing the majority at this point.
[High Turnout Wide Margins Introduction]
Eric Fey: Alright, everybody. Welcome to another exciting episode of High Turnout Wide Margins. I'm Eric Fey, Director of Elections in St. Louis County, Missouri, along with my co host –
Brianna Lennon: Brianna Lennon, I'm the county clerk in Boone County, Missouri.
Eric Fey: And today our guest is – Chris, you want to go ahead and introduce yourself?
Cristy Lynn: Sure. I'm Christy Lynn. I'm the Ouray County Colorado clerk and recorder.
Eric Fey: We appreciate you taking the time today to join us. And –
Cristy Lynn: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Eric Fey: Absolutely, and I'll kick us off the way we kick off every High Turnout Wide Margins episode, and that is, tell us your origin story in elections. How did you get to where you are in election administration?
Cristy Lynn: All right. So, I was living on the Front Range in Colorado, which, if you know Colorado at all, is the busy part. And once my kids moved out of the house, I decided it was time to move further into the mountains, to get away from the people. And, I had been in high-end hotel management for years and years, and decided when I moved, not only did I want to get away from the people, also wanted to get away from working every night and every weekend and every holiday.
So, I got put in touch with the local county clerk at the time here, and did an interview with her. And she hired me on to be kind of an entry-level elections data processor, and then I went through within about three months and got my Colorado election certification. And that was in 2018. So, I worked in the office here in Ouray County, and then left to go work in Montrose County because it was closer to where I lived at the time. And then, two years later, came back down here as the chief deputy, and then I was elected in 2022.
Eric Fey: I'm curious, how did your – if you even had any expectations back when you were first hired? How did your expectation or understanding of election administration match up with reality?
Cristy Lynn: Well, you know, I think any of us who jump into this world really don't understand what goes into putting on an election because, you know, as voters, you just see what you see. You show up, you cast your vote, you get the results, day over. So, I was shocked at what goes into actually running an election when I first started, and became completely enamored with the process from the very beginning. It just was a very, very – it felt like a very important and worthy, necessary thing to do, compared to babysitting bratty tourists. So, it was really – it really was a nice segue and something that I did not expect to fall in love with, but I did.
Brianna Lennon: So I want – I just, I guess just jump into one of the reasons that we wanted to talk to you is – so you said that you had had to run for election for this position. I think we've had lots of conversations in the past, and conversations happen all across the country about the virtues of having either an appointed county clerk or elected county clerk. And lots of times, I think the conversation about why that is, why you'd make the transition is because people assume if you're going to run elected, you're going to run going to run under a party, and that really is kind of antithetical to the thought that we're non partisan or bipartisan and running these elections.
But, I think you have a pretty unique situation, and have come to a way to kind of alleviate some of those concerns. And so, I would just love to hear a little bit about your – how you came to be unaffiliated, but also kind of the overall county, it sounds like it has kind of moved in that direction as well. And just starting with why it made sense for you to do it, and how it's affected your role?
Cristy Lynn: Sure.
Brianna Lennon: If it all.
Cristy Lynn: So, I, as soon as Colorado allowed independent voters in 2013, I became an independent at that time, and have not been party-affiliated ever since. So, they switched Colorado – switched to the term unaffiliated, so that was how I voted. Anyway, I was never party-affiliated. When I came to work in this office, the clerk that had been elected was Republican, and then midterm switched to unaffiliated. So, she is actually now a county commissioner in Ouray County and is unaffiliated. For me, it was natural. It was the way I had always been, and I was just really fortunate to be in a place that was open to that idea.
You know, in my opinion, even though we're elected, this is not a political position, this is an administrative position. And so, it's important to me to have my constituents view me as the runner of their elections, not slighted to either side. So in Ouray County, we only have one elected official who is partisan, and that is our treasurer. She's Democrat. Everybody else, sheriff, assessor, surveyor, coroner clerk is unaffiliated. Everybody who ran last year. We do have two county commissioners who are both Democrats, but, you know, we came together as kind of – a kind of a unified voice.
And, all of us that were running unaffiliated joined up on the steps of the courthouse and all announced together that we were going to be running as unaffiliated candidates. And why? You know, mainly because we did feel like our positions were not political. They're, you know, admin positions, and so, you know it for us, it's easy. I ran some numbers for my county from today.
So July 1 of 2024, and you guys might laugh at this, based on our size, 5,197 is the population of our entire county. So we're little. We have 92% of those people are active voters. So we have a very high, very dedicated voting public here, which is amazing. Super nice. 21% of those are Democrats, 22% are Republicans, and 54% are unaffiliated. 3% make up the rest of the minor parties, all combined, so we have a largely unaffiliated population. So, I think they were pretty open to us taking office as unaffiliated.
Eric Fey: I've – I find that really remarkable. I know that in many states where there is partisan voter registration, unaffiliated is often a plurality. Or if it's not, it's – it's increasing – it's increasing at a greater rate than partisan affiliation. But that just anecdotally, to me, it doesn't seem like that's translated into electing unaffiliated officials.
So, the fact that so many elected officials in your county are unaffiliated, I think, is probably pretty rare. I'm curious, though, in many states, it is more difficult to be an unaffiliated candidate to get on the ballot. Ballot access is more difficult for unaffiliated or independent candidates. So, can you explain how that works in Colorado? Did you have to do something more or different than a partisan candidate would have?
Cristy Lynn: Sure. So, of course, we know the partisan candidates have their caucuses and assemblies where they nominate their folks to be on the ballot. For unaffiliated in Colorado, we have to get on the ballot by petition. So we have to, you know, stand out in the park or go up and down Main Street and have voters – it doesn't matter if they're Republican, a Democrat, unaffiliated, Libertarian. Anybody can sign our petitions as long as their address is inside of our county. So, we do, as unaffiliated, have to collect petition signatures in order to get on the ballot.
Brianna Lennon: With you being a relatively small county, what's been the response of the political parties there to the decision, either just to you or, I mean, has it – Have they been willing to, like, support you all or are they just kind of stay[ing] out of county politics now?
Cristy Lynn: So, we do have the, you know, two major party representative groups in the county. They have been largely supportive of all of us unaffiliated candidates. And, I think a portion of that is because of the dwindling numbers of partisan folks in the area. They're not having as many people turn out to caucus or assembly.
And so, because our parties are not incredibly organized when it comes to large numbers, I think that they're just – they kind of fall back on the fact that they look at us as what we can do for the county. You know, we're a small community. Most everybody knows each other, so I think they just have a trust in us that, and with a proven track record of, you know, especially when it comes to elections.
My department running fair, open, transparent elections, there just hasn't been any concern, which is really nice for all of us. I mean, it lets us know that we're doing a good enough job that our constituents trust us and are willing to vote for us, even though we're not party members. And as we all know this day and age – there is a growing group of people who are completely bucking the idea of any party affiliation at all. And so, because, you know, we're over 50% unaffiliated in the county.
I think folks just really see us kind of as, that we speak for them. So our – when we announce – when we announced in 2021 that the whole group of us was running in 2022, the Republican party representatives and the Democratic Party representatives came and stood at the foot of the stairs and supported us all.
Eric Fey: So did any partisan candidates run against the unaffiliated candidates?
Cristy Lynn: Yes. Yeah, and so I'm – let's see, before me, Clerk Nauer, who is now a commissioner, was in the office for 28 years, I believe. And then prior to her, was 30 or 32 years, and prior to her was almost 40 years. So I'm only the fourth clerk we've had in 100 years. So, you know, there's – it's just we have a lovely community, and we all really communicate well with each other.
We have a great local newspaper that, if anybody you know has anything to say, that's a good avenue. But, yeah, we're really fortunate. It's a very nice place to be with the strife that's happening around the country, just in general. My folks just come up to me and say, "Thanks, thanks for running an election. That's great." You know, we have a handful of people on either side, extreme, but for the most part, we just have a lovely, conscientious voting public.
[High Turnout Wide Margins Mid-break]
Brianna Lennon: How has the reaction been with your fellow county clerks in Colorado? I mean, have you had any fellow clerks reach out and ask, like, "What was the process you guys did? Do you think that this is something that could work in my community." Or is it pretty, pretty isolated?
Cristy Lynn: Um, you know, I was actually trying to find that statistic this morning on how many of us are unaffiliated as county clerks and couldn't readily find it. I was trying to find down each of our 64 counties, but was not able to come up with that number quickly. So, there are a few of us that I know of, mainly in the smaller communities.
You know, I think what happens when you get over towards the front range, like, Denver and Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, you have organized political parties that have a lot of money, and so they're willing to campaign for you. And, I think that's probably the biggest reason that folks, you know, let's be honest, standing out on a street corner asking a bunch of people that you don't know to sign a petition to get you elected to an office that's going to make a difference in their lives is a difficult thing to do, especially if you're in a bigger county.
By going the partisan route, being able to go to caucus and assembly, they have more support from people that they know, and it really is a much more straightforward way to get on the ballot and to get elected. So, I completely understand, especially in the more populous areas, why it would be harder to run as an unaffiliated. You know, we have to do all of our own pay for all of our own campaigns and signs and t-shirts and whatever else that we're going to do, so we don't have the backing.
We don't have any big somebody who's willing to put us on their Republican website or their Democratic website and say, "Hey, vote for this person." So, it does make it a little more difficult, which is why, in my opinion, more elected officials on the county level have not been elected as unaffiliated just because they don't have the backing, not from the people from the parties with the money and the influence.
Eric Fey: So, taking this back – this conversation back down a little bit to the administrative level of running elections in Colorado and tying it into this whole unaffiliated issue. So, in Colorado, famously, I guess you know, at least some people there term the Colorado model, everybody is mailed a ballot. They can return it in person at, you know, like a vote center type thing, or they can mail it back, or drop it off. I assume you need workers just to open ballots and to staff that operation that have partisan affiliations. Are unaffiliated workers allowed to work in that environment?
Cristy Lynn: We staff our voter service and polling center with instead of necessarily calling it bipartisan, we call it multi-partisan. So you're not going to find two Democrats together, two Republicans together. It's going to be a Republican, a Democrat, an unaffiliated, Democrat. So, Colorado statute does allow for unaffiliated election judges to work our elections.
We still have to go through the process of exhausting the caucus lists that come from the Republican and the Democratic Party first. So if, for some reason, we had a really big turnout of folks that wanted to be election judges that show up at the party's seat, the party's caucuses, then we have to go through those lists first.
And then, we also send a list of whoever is chosen to the Republicans, to the Democrats and that, so that, you know, they can look and make objections if they have any, things like that. So yes, they can work in our voter service polling centers after we staff with Republicans and Democrats.
Brianna Lennon: There's all these like little subgroups of, especially like at the national level, they have NACo's got, like a democratic, locally elected little caucus and a Republican one and things like that. Have you found if you participate in any of those, or just have, like thought about it, how have you kind of navigated that? Or even your commissioners navigated that, I guess, with NACo, like fitting in when it is such a small minority of electeds that consider themselves independent or unaffiliated?
Cristy Lynn: From a personal standpoint, I really haven't had that much. Our clerks association in Colorado is an incredibly strong, incredibly supportive organization, regardless of party affiliation, and so I have never felt that I'm in the minority. I mean, I know I am in the minority as far as elected clerks go, but I have – nobody has ever made me feel less than or I don't belong.
Eric Fey: That actually leads into my next question. In your interactions with other clerks in your association, and I, if I remember right, I'm sure your Association puts together kind of a legislative package, or they support or oppose ideas in the legislature. Has anybody broached the idea of, you know, mandating nonpartisan clerks or anything like that?
Cristy Lynn: As much as it would make my heart incredibly happy for that to be a serious conversation, as long as the money backing is behind the major parties, I really just don't see that happening. You know, there are some home rule counties in Colorado and a lot of home rule municipalities, which we know, for those people who don't know, that means they essentially come up with a charter and make their own rules.
They don't have to follow the state mandates for how they elect folks, either on a county level or a municipal level, depending on what their charter says. But there's, it's such – there's so few of them that I really, I really just don't – I don't know. I would love to see it be reality, but I don't think it's gonna happen.
Brianna Lennon: You know, you've been doing it for a while. Would you advocate for like – I'm wondering if there's any like, concrete things that you find that may be advantageous to you being unaffiliated now, whether it's the lack of political pressure, or whatever, like, what do you see are the benefits?
Cristy Lynn: I think, I think the biggest benefit that I see when it comes to my constituents and as a whole, I mean, I ran the numbers for the whole state of Colorado today, which Colorado in general is 50% unaffiliated. So, I feel like the advantage in having unaffiliated elected officials is that we really are representing the majority at this point.
And it gives people – think folks that come into my office during an election and know that I'm unaffiliated, find it easier to talk to me because they don't have a preconceived notion of what my feelings might be one way or the other. You know, they don't come in kind of with their fists up, going, “Well, I'm going to say this, and I know it's not what you think, so let's fight.” So, I think it's an advantage in making the folks around you, that you work for, feel confident and comfortable in what you're doing for them and how they communicate with you.
You know, it's just especially in Colorado, it's the way, it's the way that it's trending with unaffiliated voters being able to participate in primaries. That was really the tipping point to increasing the number of unaffiliated voters, because folks who really are passionate about voting want to be part of that Primary, and couldn't. And then Colorado brought back the presidential primaries, and so then it was really important to them to be able to vote in that election. And if you're unaffiliated in Colorado, you are sent two ballots, one Republican ballot and one Democratic ballot, and you have to choose which one to vote on. You can't get both ballots and say, "Oh, I like Bob Smith on the Republican and Jane Jones on the Democrat" and send them both back, because then they get thrown out.
But, it does give you the option to look at both groups of candidates and make the decision that's best for you. So, I think that when the unaffiliated voters were allowed to vote in primaries starting in 2018 that really started the tipping point of where unaffiliated voters gained numbers because they felt like they could be part of the process.
Eric Fey: I'm also curious, real quick, how much of an impact, if at all, putting two ballots in there versus just one ballot for the partisan voters, affects cost or complexity of managing the mailing of those ballot packets?
Cristy Lynn: The cost definitely went up because, of course, now we're adding another printing sheet. Depends on how big we're printing, but we figure, between the printing and the postage, it increased about $1.10 a voter to increase. So it's big, but it's worth it. The state just increased the reimbursement that the clerks get from the state on the portion of the ballot that would contain any state or federal questions. So it's, I still think it's worth it.
Brianna Lennon: We're kind of coming up on time, but I wanted to make sure if there was anything else that you wanted to add that we didn't ask or just kind of conclude with, you know.
Cristy Lynn: It's so important to get your information from trusted sources and making sure that you are not running with information you heard at a party, you know, kind of thing. Really, like, I'm with my neighbor, and he's drinking whiskey, and all of a sudden, this is what's happening. And then you're out, you know, protesting in front of the courthouse. Don't do that.
Like, go ahead, find your local source, which, you know, I like to tell people, they're always welcome to come and talk to me, of course. But if, for some reason, you don't want to talk to me, find another county clerk in the county that maybe is your party affiliation and talk with them and listen to what they tell you. We – our job is to run the best elections that we can run and have them be transparent and accurate, and we are doing that. And, we're all human, so there can be small mistakes that can be made, you know, maybe a spreadsheet that got missorted, or something like that. That doesn't mean that things are on fire. That doesn't mean that something's trying to be hidden.
I want people to understand how much we take to heart and have pride in the work that we're doing. To make sure that we are preserving our democracy as much as we can, and helping people feel confident in the voting process. And so, go to your trusted sources. Use your skeptical thinking brain, your critical thinking brain, and if it doesn't sound right, investigate it. And then, go thank your county clerk and your election workers, if you can.
Brianna Lennon: You've been listening to High Turnout Wide Margins, a podcast that explores local elections administration. I'm your host, Brianna Lennon alongside Eric Fey. A big thanks to KBIA and the Election Center for making this podcast possible. Our Managing Editor is Rebecca Smith. Managing Producer is Aaron Hay. Our Associate Producer is Katie Quinn, and our Digital Producer is Mark Johnson. This has been High Turnout Wide Margins. Thanks for listening.
