Two Aspen political allies will have to definitely battle it out for a City Council seat.Longtime political servant Mick Ireland and grassroots organizer Bert Myrin will face off in June for a four year city council seat. Neither got enough votes in the spring election to land the post outright.
Tuesday night, Mick Ireland said this after most ballots were counted. “I think we had a clear message. Not as much money but we had a clear message and [will] carry on from here. I think I owe it to the 880 people, to give them a chance to see their objective realized.”
That’s the number of people who voted for Ireland this first time around. Officials confirmed Thursday evening that a runoff election is a definite and will take place on June 2nd. City Clerk Linda Manning explains the final vote count this way for Myrin, who was the frontrunner: “He gained four [votes]. So he ended up with 994 votes, and I believe it was still a hundred and twelve that he needed-- it was in that ballpark.”
Myrin and Ireland had worked closely to rally support for Referendum 1 in the spring election. They were successful and the ballot question passed. The last time Aspen had a runoff election was in 2013, for the Mayor’s seat. Aspen will use mail in ballots again this June, but with only one vote center.
