Douglas County voters heavily oppose home-rule ballot measure in early results

A ballot measure that would give Douglas County a crack at assuming home-rule authority for the first time was trailing badly among voters Tuesday night in initial special election results released shortly after 7 p.m.

The measure was put on the ballot by leaders of the conservative county as a way of gaining more local control — and potentially pushing back on what they characterize as overbearing legislation from Democratic state lawmakers.

But the first release of results Tuesday evening showed the measure on track to go down decisively, with nearly 72% of voters saying no and 28% saying yes. Nearly 60,000 votes had been counted against Question 1A, while fewer than 24,000 were counted in favor. The county clerk’s office planned to update results next around 9 p.m.

In the mail ballot election, voters were asked to authorize the creation of a county charter — essentially a constitution for Douglas County — along with selecting a 21-member commission to draw up the document. If it passed, voters would have taken a second vote in November to approve the charter, a necessary step before home-rule authority could go into effect.

For now, Denver, Broomfield, Pitkin and Weld counties are the only Colorado counties with home-rule authority.

The campaign surrounding Douglas County’s quest for home-rule authority has been anything but quiet. Three county residents, including state Rep. Bob Marshall and former Commissioner Lora Thomas, sued the Board of County Commissioners in April, alleging multiple violations of Colorado’s open-meetings law during the run-up to the adoption of Ballot Question 1A.

They asked the court to stop Tuesday’s election, which was estimated to cost $500,000, from going forward.

But a judge sided with the county in May, saying he didn’t see evidence that the board violated the open-meetings law and ruling that a preliminary injunction to stop the election would “sacrifice the public’s right to vote.”

The Colorado Court of Appeals also ruled against the plaintiffs last week.

Signs and billboards sprouted along highways and byways in Douglas County, both in favor and against, as the special election drew nearer and mail voting began. In late May, about 100 people crowded into county chambers to ask questions about the process, with the meeting devolving into a shouting match between commissioners and several audience members.

Forty-nine candidates vied for the 21 charter commission seats Tuesday.

Opponents, operating under the “Stop the Power Grab” banner, accused the commissioners of quietly concocting the home-rule plan over a series of more than a dozen meetings starting late last year — and then rubber-stamping the decision at a public hearing in late March. That meeting lasted mere minutes.

“What this has brought out in us is the question of — why now?” Kelly Mayr, a nearly three-decade resident of Highlands Ranch and a member of Stop the Power Grab, told The Denver Post this month. “Why are they rushing it? If this is a good idea for the county, why would we not take our time?”

Local control has factored heavily in Colorado politics in recent years, with cities and counties lashing out — even taking legal action — against a state government they accuse of overreach in municipal matters. Just last month, six metro Denver cities — Aurora, Arvada, Glendale, Greenwood Village, Lafayette and Westminster — sued Gov. Jared Polis in an attempt to block two 2024 land-use laws that aim to encourage the building of more housing.

The cities, all of which are home-rule municipalities, argue that the laws, which seek to increase density and eliminate parking requirements near transit stops, violate the provision of the Colorado Constitution that gives local governments the authority to establish their own land-use rules.