EDITOR’S NOTE: This article, originally posted at 3:30am, has been updated at 7:30am.
Archuleta County voters leaned to the Republican side of the ticket for the various jobs listed on the November 8 ballot, while also rejecting a sales tax increase proposed by the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners by nearly a 3-to-1 margin.
These results are still unofficial. Statewide, we are still waiting for results from some counties as of 3:30am Wednesday.
In Archuleta County, 7,839 ballots were cast, out of a possible 11,109 registered voters, for a 71% turnout.
The U.S. Senate race drew the largest response from our local voters (7,713 votes cast) with the Governor’s race in second place (7,703) and the local sales tax proposal being the third most popular contest with 7,619 votes cast.
Statewide, it appears that U.S. Senator Michael Bennet retained his Senate seat with about 55% of the votes, and Jared Polis will remain the state’s governor with 58% support.
Local Ballot Measure 1A would have increased the Archuleta County sales tax from 4% to 5.5%. 5,541 voters said “No, thank you”… while 2,078 voted “Yes”.
In the two contested local races, Republican candidates were successful. Veronica Medina won the District 3 County Commissioner seat with 4,494 votes; her opponent, Rachel Suh, ran as Unaffiliated and gathered 2,720 votes. Mike Le Roux won the Sheriff’s job with 4,717 votes, defeating his two Unaffiliated challengers, Monica Medina (1,566 votes) and Wayne Bryant (1,190 votes).
Other statewide contests:
Archuleta County supported incumbent Lauren Boebert to remain the U.S. Representative in the 3rd Congressional District, but the rest of the district — which includes much of rural southern Colorado — leaned towards Democrat Adam Frisch, who appears to have taken Boebert’s seat with about 149,000 votes to Boebert’s 146,000 votes.
Boebert went into the race in a strong position. Redistricting had solidified the district’s red lean, with a 9-point advantage for Republicans. She also had national name recognition and about $2 million in campaign cash. Republicans outnumber registered Democrats in the 3rd district, but unaffiliated voters are the largest bloc; about 44% of active voters in the district are registered unaffiliated, while about 24% percent are Democrats and about 34% percent are registered as Republicans.
In races that were called early this morning by Colorado Public Radio, the following U.S. Representatives appear to have won reelection: Brittany Pettersen, Diana DeGette, Jason Crow, Joe Neguse, Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn. Jena Griswold will remain Secretary of State; Phil Weiser won another term as state Attorney General.
Amendment D, defining the judges for the new 23rd Judicial District, passed easily, as did Amendment E, extending the property tax exemptions to surviving spouses of veterans. Amendment F, which would have changed gaming rules for charitable organizations, failed by a large margin.
The following propositions were successful:
- Proposition FF, Healthy Meals for public school children
- Proposition GG, requiring additional ballot information on tax measures
- Proposition 121, lowering the state income tax
- Proposition 122, allowing the use of psychedelic plants and fungi
- Proposition 123, providing new funding sources for housing
Three propositions regarding alcohol sales failed.