Colorado secretary of state invalidates House vacancy election, requiring El Paso County GOP to hold redo

El Paso County Republicans will meet again to fill former state House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese’s seat after the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office invalidated a vacancy election that was conducted too soon.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office announced Tuesday that the county party’s attempt to fill the seat early last week fell outside the legally required timeline to give advance notice of a vacancy committee election.

State law requires vacancy committees to meet no fewer than 10 days after mailing a written notice to the committee members. The El Paso County GOP, however, notified committee members the day of Pugliese’s Sept. 15 resignation and held the selection a week later.

The ruling by the secretary of state’s office in effect nullifies the committee’s selection of Ava Flanell, a Second Amendment activist and podcast host, to finish Pugliese’s term. Flanell said she intends to seek the seat at the next vacancy committee on Oct. 11.

County GOP Chair Ken Davis said the original vacancy committee was abiding by the local bylaws, which required the party to fill a vacancy within 10 days. Members will now meet again to make sure they’ve “officially crossed every T and dotted every I” to pick Pugliese’s replacement, he said. The party will also update its bylaws to comply with state law.

“We were dealing with a very short window, so we moved quickly,” Davis said.

Flanell beat out two other candidates to win the seat at the now-invalid meeting. A fourth candidate, who withdrew his name before the contest, Davis said, made the complaint to the secretary of state’s office.