Earlier this week, Clerk and Recorder Paul López launched an online petition to help convince members of the Denver City Council to amend Mayor Mike Johnston’s proposed 2026 spending plan to “adequately fund” the city’s elections office.

Using the platform change.org, López argues that “fully funding the Clerk and Recorder’s Office is not about politics — it’s about protecting democracy.”

As of Friday afternoon, the petition had approximately 142 signatures.

A spokesperson for the Clerk’s office told The Denver Gazette the petition was just “one of many ways people can voice their support for fully funding our budget in 2026.”

“The goal is to ensure our voters know we are working to advocate on their behalf to ensure elections are fully funded in 2026,” López spokesperson Mikayla Ortega said. “The mayor has stated that critical cuts to Denver services will not be impacted; however, that is simply not true. These cuts will cut access to polling centers and the ballot box, making it harder to vote in Denver.”

Responses to the online petition are automatically sent to the City Council. Still, Ortega said her office will also be presenting the list of signatures during the Oct. 27 public hearing on the budget.

Johnston has been firm in his stance that every agency must endure budget cuts as the city faces a $200 million deficit.

“With most major cities facing economic headwinds, it is only right that all agencies do their part to find savings while protecting core services and jobs,” Johnston spokesperson Jon Ewing told the Denver Gazette in an email.

López and Johnston have been at odds over a $4.5 million request that was not included in the 2026 budget for the Clerk’s office.

Without the additional funding, López said, for the primary election, the city will have to close 12 of its 17 polling centers and close eight drop boxes, reducing that number from 46 to 38.

For the general and midterm elections, he said, the city would lose one of its 39 polling places, as well as close to 300 election judges who are paid Denver’s minimum wage to ensure elections are conducted fairly, securely and in accordance with local and state laws.

“As the Clerk’s proposed budget will be more than he was allocated during the last midterm election in 2022 and represents only a 1.5% reduction from this year’s budget – and as the vast majority of Denverites vote by mail –  we are confident that Clerk López can deliver safe and equitable access to elections in 2026.”

López has long argued that the Denver City Charter requires the City Council to “appropriate sufficient funds to the Clerk and Recorder to enable the Clerk and Recorder to fulfill any duty or meet any requirement or obligation imposed by state law upon a county clerk and recorder…”

The mayor has stated that the budget he has presented is a “balanced budget” as required by the city charter and preserves the city’s core services.

“If there are any amendments to the budget that add cuts to any of the departments,” Johnston told reporters, “those would directly either cut these core services because there is nothing left to cut in these departments from what has currently been done without affecting these core services or affecting layoffs, which is why we think it’s really critical for all the public to know about that in the process ahead.”