Tri-Lakes Votes Today: Two Mayors, Nine Town Seats and Ballot Issue 2B

Polls close at 7 p.m. today. Monument and Palmer Lake are each electing a mayor and most of a town board, Monument is deciding a construction use tax, and from 7 p.m. the Independent will carry live results through the night.

Ballots must reach the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder by 7 p.m. today, Tuesday, Nov. 3. It is too late to mail one, and a postmark does not count. Drop boxes take ballots until 7 p.m., polling centers are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and anyone in line when the polls close may still vote.

The count begins after that. From 7 p.m. the Independent’s live results page will lead its home page, carrying the results for the races on Tri-Lakes ballots and for Colorado’s statewide measures as the county and the state release them. The page updates itself every five minutes, so it can be left open all evening. Every number on it will be unofficial. Voters whose ballots are flagged for a signature problem have until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12, to fix it, so a close race can still move after tonight.

Where to vote

Thirteen official drop-off sites lie between the Douglas County line and Woodmen Road. None is in Palmer Lake. The three closest to it are in Monument and Woodmoor: the Barn–Woodmoor Community Center, 1691 Woodmoor Dr., a polling center; the Monument Park-n-Ride, 1890 Woodmoor Dr., a 24-hour drive-up drop box; and Town of Monument Public Works, 259 Beacon Lite Rd., a polling center. The Independent’s guide, Too Late to Mail a Ballot: Where to Return It in the Tri-Lakes, maps all thirteen, with directions to each.

Sign the envelope before dropping it off. A ballot with no signature, or with one that does not match the signature on file, is not counted unless the voter fixes it. BallotTrax, the county’s tracking service, shows where a ballot is, from mailed to counted.

Mayor of Monument

The mayor’s race is the only contested race on Monument’s ballot. The winner serves four years in the seat Mitch LaKind is leaving. Both candidates sit on the council, and the Independent interviewed each in person for a profile.

Kenneth Kimple, who represents District 2, is a retired Navy air traffic controller who manages Fort Carson’s airfield. On the Planning Commission and the council he has pressed the town to plan ahead: for an east-side wildfire evacuation, a backup water connection and roads that can carry its growth. As mayor, he says, he would first connect the town’s water system to Triview Metropolitan District’s for emergencies, then ask the new council to choose a renewable supply.

Laura Kronick, who represents District 1, is a retired Hewlett-Packard solution architect who served on the Monument Sanitation District board before joining the council. She has built her time in town government around reading the books line by line. As mayor, she says, she would bring the region’s water providers and outside experts together to find a renewable supply the town can afford, and explain to residents which districts serve them and why a regional answer makes sense.

Whoever wins must give up a council seat that runs to 2028, and the council then has 90 days to fill it by appointment or special election. The candidate who loses keeps their seat.

Mayor of Palmer Lake

Palmer Lake’s mayor serves two years. Dennis Stern, the mayor now, is not seeking the office again; he is running for trustee.

Kent Hutson, a neuroradiologist, chaired the volunteer team that wrote Palmer Lake’s 2022 community master plan and sits on the town’s Planning Commission. He says he would govern by convening the people who know a subject and deciding together, starting with a workshop to bring the whole board up to speed on water. His projects include sidewalks along Highway 105, restarting work on a stormwater district and getting the town’s development applications online.

Atis Jurka, an Army veteran who spent his career in cable and telecommunications, has been a trustee since December 2024. His campaign rests on the idea that residents should be heard before decisions are made and able to see how their money is spent. He would start setting money aside now for a second town well, commission a new study of the town’s stormwater problems and favor small business over new housing.

If Jurka wins, his trustee seat falls vacant and the board fills it by appointment until 2028; if he loses, he keeps it. Both candidates took questions at a forum on Oct. 4, and the Independent’s recap has what each said.

Monument Town Council

Four council seats are also on Monument’s ballot, each with as many candidates as places. Dan DeBoo is the only candidate for District 1, and Marco P. Fiorito, who holds the District 2 seat now, is the only candidate for it. Scott Gilson and Alex Valderrama are running for the two at-large seats; the one with more votes takes a four-year term and the other a two-year term. Three of the four winners will be new to the Monument Town Council. Six Candidates, Five Seats, One Contested Race sets out every seat, its term and why the two at-large terms differ.

Palmer Lake Board of Trustees

Ten candidates are running for five of the six trustee seats, and voters may choose up to five. In ballot order they are William Bass, Beth Harris, Tony Beltran, Dennis Stern, Rebecca “Becky” Albright, Karla Kerstner, Roger Moseley, Kathy Keeley, John Marble and Eric Alan Burton. The town is restoring staggered terms, so the two with the most votes will serve four years and the next three will serve two. Palmer Lake’s November Ballot Is Set explains the ballot, and the forum recap carries the answers of the eight trustee candidates who took part.

Monument Ballot Issue 2B

Monument’s one ballot question would raise the town’s use tax on construction and building materials and construction equipment from 2 percent to 3.5 percent from Jan. 1, 2027, matching its sales tax. The tax on vehicles stays at 2 percent. The town estimates the increase at $2,272,500 in its first year, to be spent on capital projects including streets, roads, bridges, sidewalks and stormwater. The Independent’s analysis, 2B Asks Monument’s Builders to Pay the Rate Shoppers Already Do, found Monument’s rate lower than that of any of ten Front Range towns of similar size; at 3.5 percent it would sit in the middle of the group. The open questions the analysis identified are how much the tax will raise and how tightly the money is held to roads.

El Paso County

Woodmoor, Gleneagle and Black Forest are in the county’s District 1, where the commissioner’s seat is open. Ryan Graham, the Republican, and Gavin Rainey, the Democrat, are on the ballot. Matt Grubesic is running as a write-in, and a vote for him counts only if the voter fills in the write-in oval and prints his name. The towns of Monument and Palmer Lake are in District 3, whose seat is not on this ballot. Matt Grubesic Enters the District 1 Commissioner Race as a Write-In covers all three candidates.

Every ballot in the county also carries El Paso County Ballot Issue 1A. It would extend the county’s existing 0.23 percent public safety sales and use tax, at the same rate, to Jan. 1, 2037, and limit the money to the sheriff’s patrol deputies and investigators, the county jail, and wildland fire and emergency response. The sheriff’s office would report the tax’s revenue and spending each year at a public hearing of the county commissioners. The county’s TABOR notice prints the full ballot language and the arguments filed for it; none were filed against.

The rest of the ballot

The same envelope carries the midterm general election. Every Tri-Lakes precinct is in the Fifth Congressional District, where Jeff Crank, the first-term Republican, faces Jessica Killin, the Democrat; candidates of the American Constitution and Libertarian parties are also on the ballot. The Independent checked claims from both campaigns against the record in Crank and Killin Answer Our Questions and published both candidates’ answers to the same five questions in full. The ballot also carries a U.S. Senate seat, the governor’s office and the other statewide offices, seats in the legislature, county offices and judges standing for retention.

Fourteen statewide questions are on the ballot as well: seven proposed amendments to the state constitution and seven propositions. Voters inside the Front Range Passenger Rail District, which takes in part or all of 13 counties including El Paso, also decide its Ballot Issue 7A. The Independent’s elections page reproduces each measure exactly as the state certified it.

The new mayors of both towns take office in January.

Sources & further reading

The Independent’s own coverage: Too Late to Mail a Ballot: Where to Return It in the Tri-Lakes, every drop box and polling center on one map · Elections 2026, every local contest and the full language of each measure · Kenneth Kimple Wants Monument Ready Before It Needs to Be and Laura Kronick Reads Every Line of the Budget, the Monument mayoral profiles · Kent Hutson Chaired Palmer Lake’s Master Plan and Atis Jurka Wants Palmer Lake Residents Heard First, the Palmer Lake mayoral profiles · Six Candidates, Five Seats, One Contested Race, Monument’s ballot seat by seat · Palmer Lake’s November Ballot Is Set, the certified ballot and the staggered terms · Palmer Lake Candidate Forum, October 4, 2026 · 2B Asks Monument’s Builders to Pay the Rate Shoppers Already Do, the use tax set against ten similar towns · Matt Grubesic Enters the District 1 Commissioner Race as a Write-In, the District 1 field · Crank and Killin Answer Our Questions and Crank and Killin, in Their Own Words, the Fifth District race.

El Paso County: Voting and Returning My Ballot · 2026 General Election secure ballot boxes and voter service and polling centers (PDF) · Official sample ballot (PDF) · TABOR notice (PDF), with Ballot Issue 1A · BallotTrax · District 1 Commissioner

Colorado Secretary of State: GoVoteColorado.gov · 2026 Election Calendar (PDF)

Using this reporting? Credit The Monument Independent and link to this article: https://monumentindependent.com/government/tri-lakes-election-day-2026/. Our guidelines are at Using Our Reporting.