Colorado
With early voting in Summit County now open, Sensible Breckenridge ”” the local marijuana reform group ”” held a press conference Monday to promote ballot measure 2F, or the decriminalization of marijuana in the town. Breckenridge voters will consider whether to remove criminal penalties from the Breckenridge town code for the private possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older. The county’s official election day is Nov. 3.
Colorado State Rep. Joel Judd, D-Denver, has come out in opposition to Denver Ballot Initiative 300, the so-called impound initiative. He criticized the proposed law as overreaching and unnecessary. “If Initiative 300 becomes law, police officers would be forced to impound the vehicle of anyone driving without their license or registration, even in the case of a driver forgetting their wallet or purse at home.”
About two years after voters narrowly rejected a measure that would have abolished term limits for the Mesa County Sheriff, the electorate is weighing in on a similar set of issues through a mail-in ballot process. At question is whether term limits should be extended for the offices of district attorney, coroner and sheriff. Each office holder is limited to serving two, four-year terms before having to leave their post.
Recently I broke a tie vote at a city council meeting to accept an initiative petition regarding the Marty Dahl horse manure issue. The voters in Hot Springs will decide this issue at the next election in June. If the initiative is approved by the voters, the city will have our attorney ask the court if we can pay Mr. Dahl the $800 it cost him to haul the manure out of his yard.
The Roaring Fork Valley’s largest energy provider has endorsed Pitkin County’s “energy smart” initiative, joining a growing coalition of supporters for the measure voters will decide by mail-in ballot next month. If passed, the measure would allow the county to hand out up to $7 million in loans for homeowners to make energy-efficient upgrades on their houses. Loans for the voluntary program would be paid back through participants’ property tax bills over the next 15 to 20 years. It will not affect taxes for nonparticipants.
The Denver City Council on Monday passed a proclamation urging voters to defeat a ballot initiative that would require police to impound the vehicles of unlicensed drivers. All but one council member heaped scorn on the initiative, saying it was a costly, thinly veiled attack against illegal immigrants that would end up requiring the city to spend precious resources. “It will tie up police time,” said Councilman Doug Linkhart, who sponsored the proclamation. “It will tie up city attorney time. It will tie up court time.”
The success or failure of one measure on the ballot this year will determine the future of the city’s library system and could steer how some services find funding in years to come. Ballot measure 4A, which will appear on this fall’s ballot, will propose a new way of funding the city’s libraries, a system currently in danger of major funding cuts and multiple closures in the wake of a larger municipal budget crunch.
Stu Allen describes himself as “a 23-year-old kid who just got (ticked) off watching the news” about California voters overturning that state’s Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriage was a constitutional right. Calling themselves “Yes on Equal Rights,” he and his girlfriend, Crystal Russell, 22, relied on Google searches and the how-to guide on the Secretary of State’s website to launch an initiative to put same-sex marriage on the 2010 ballot.
The Boulder County Jail burns through a lot of electricity. There are about 500 people living in the jail, which sits just north of Valmont Road in east Boulder. That translates to a lot of laundry — the washers and dryers are tumbling and spinning up to 16 hours a day — a lot of hot showers and a lot of light bulbs.
The Pitkin County ballot measure that would create a voluntary loan program for residential and commercial property owners interested in making energy upgrades won easy endorsement Tuesday from the Aspen Chamber Resort Association board of directors. “It would be a catastrophic failure if this didn’t pass,” said Auden Schendler, environmental affairs director for the Aspen Skiing Co., urging ACRA board members to push Referendum 1A’s passage among their various constituencies.
Firefighters and a city councilwoman were among those attending a rally Saturday for Item 2C on the November 3 ballot. The measure proposes raising the property tax 10 mills over five years, to ultimately generate $46 million for public services.
Roughly five weeks away from the Nov. 3 election, City Council will finalize city ballot questions at its regular meeting tonight, including setting the ballot title for the initiative to create a “strong mayor” form of city government. Council’s regular meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall. The agenda for the pre-meeting work session calls for an executive session to discuss negotiations.
Next week the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce whether it will hear a First Amendment challenge to a Colorado law that requires groups to register with the government and reveal their donors if they take positions on ballot measures. The law applies not just to groups that are established to support or oppose initiatives but also to any organization that has “a major purpose” of doing so.
There’s a good blog post over at Reason Online outlining the U.S. Supreme Court and a case coming out of Colorado. A law passed in Colorado requires any group that takes a position one way or the other on a ballot measure must register with the government and provide information on their donors. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide next week whether or not to hear the case. You can check out the blog post here.
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Opponents of a ballot initiative that would require the mandatory impoundment of cars driven by unlicensed drivers are hopeful that voters have become so disenfranchised by a similar law that they won’t back it a second time around. Daniel Hayes, an unincorporated Jefferson County resident, has introduced Initiative 300, asking Denver voters to put “teeth” into a similar law that voters backed last year. The law requires police officers to impound the cars of unlicensed drivers. But Hayes said officers have been using their discretion and not impounding enough of the cars.