On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced he will move U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama, citing Colorado’s mail-in voting practice as a contributing factor to the decision, which he stated lends itself to “automatically crooked elections.”

But city officials said it is impossible to gauge how much of an impact the move would have on Denver and Denver voters.

“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!,” the president wrote in a post on his Truth social media platform. “Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!!! President DJT”

Denver has more than 560,000 registered voters, according to data posted on the Clerk and Recorder’s website.

So, how would a sudden shift to in-person voting affect the City and County of Denver should the president uphold his most recent threat to abolish mail-in voting?

“Such a move would dismantle the gold-standard system we’ve built in Colorado — one that ensures secure, accessible, and equitable elections for all voters,” Mikayla Ortega, spokesperson for the Clerk’s office, said.

More than 85% voters routinely return their ballots by mail or drop box rather than voting at a polling center, according to the Clerk’s office.

“Beyond the impact of voter disenfranchisement, it’s impossible to speculate on how much this (executive order) could cost taxpayers without additional details about implementation requirements,” Ortega said. “Previous iterations of proposed in-person voting legislation have gone so far as to require ballots be cast and counted in individual precincts, which would require Denver to open, equip, and staff hundreds of additional polling centers.”

Mandating people to vote in-person impacts voters who can’t take time off work, don’t have child care, lack access to transportation, or may not be physically able to stand in potentially long lines, Ortega said.

In 2026, Denver will have both a primary and a midterm election — significant elections with implications for various levels of government.

In March, the president signed an executive order ordering voters to provide proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

However, a federal judge blocked parts of that order, including the proof of citizenship requirement, ruling that the U.S. Constitution enshrines the power to regulate federal elections with Congress and individual states — not the president.

“Our required budget to run the office and these elections next year is $18.7 million,” Ortega said, but as the city continues to tighten its belt, the Clerk and Recorder’s Office is likely only to see $14.1 million.

The Trump administration has argued that mail-in voting is a hotbed for fraud and “rigged elections” — without providing evidence. 

In Colorado, attempted voter fraud is exceedingly rare, Ortega said.

“We work diligently to ensure any misconduct is caught, reported, and investigated,” she said.

Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that “it is deeply ironic that President Trump made a decision about the Space Force based on Colorado’s election model, yet moved it to Alabama, a state whose system provides neither the access nor the security that Colorado’s does.”

In 2013, Colorado’s county clerks — at the time, the vast majority of them Republicans — designed and championed the nation’s first modern mail ballot system, Crane added.

“Their work laid the foundation for what is now recognized as the most reliable, transparent, and accessible election model in the country.”