The Colorado Supreme Court has declined to rehear the city of Aspen’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that allows public review of voted ballots from the 2009 election.

The decision likely ends a years-long legal fight between the city and Aspen resident Marilyn Marks, who sued the municipality and City Clerk Kathryn Koch after Marks’ open records request to review the ballots was denied.

The state high court said in April that it would hear the case after the city appealed a Colorado Court of Appeals ruling in Marks’ favor. But June 28 the court announced that it had reversed itself and would not hear the case, affirming the lower court’s decision.

The city then asked the justices to reconsider, which they have now declined to do. The decision also upholds the granting of hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees for Marks.

Marks on Monday said she was not quite ready to say her battle, which she said she waged in the interest of transparency in government, is now over.

“Before I assume that the controversy is nearing an end, I want to see more evidence that the city is committed to the election transparency that the law requires and the concepts of fairness in fee awards when they improperly withhold any type of  public record,” she wrote in an email.

For more on this story, see tomorrow’s Aspen Daily News.

chad@aspendailynews.com