An estimated 800,000 voters in four Front Range counties erroneously received ballots with a question about a tax increase for passenger rail because the Front Range Passenger Rail District failed to provide updated election maps to four county clerks.
Issue 7A — the question about increasing the sales tax in select communities to fund an expansion of the Colorado Connector, or CoCo, train — was put on too many ballots in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Weld counties after the Front Range Passenger Rail District did not inform county election clerks about changes to the district’s boundaries.
Election and rail district officials on Wednesday said voters should fill out their entire ballots as they normally would, and clerks will sort out which votes are valid after the election.
“Voters should vote the ballot they were sent,” Colorado Secretary of State’s office spokesperson Jack Todd said in an email.
In a statement, the secretary of state’s office and Colorado County Clerk’s Association said the Colorado Department of State is working on guidance to help counties only count eligible votes in the ballot issue contest.
In a letter to the four county clerks, Brent E. Butzin, the district’s general counsel and the designated election official, apologized for the communication failure.
The district’s boundaries changed in May after the Colorado General Assembly approved a bill to narrow the district’s boundaries to match the passenger train route that is being developed, Butzin said in a letter sent Wednesday.
The problem happened because the district is a “unique creation” under state law and so the new boundaries were not shared “through the usual channels your offices rely on,” he wrote.
“We should have communicated earlier in this process with all the county clerks in the district to ensure you had the information you needed to successfully administer this election,” Butzin said. “We regret the confusion that has followed.”
The rail district is asking the clerks and the Colorado Secretary of State’s office to allow everyone who received an erroneous ballot to vote as they normally would, according to the letter. District officials are proposing that county clerks then use precinct maps to determine which votes for Issue 7A should be counted.
Votes cast on 7A by people who should not have received the question on their ballots should be tossed, while other votes on those ballots will be counted as normal and unaffected by the erroneous question, Butzin wrote in the letter.
“We recognize the inconvenience this will cause each of you, and we genuinely appreciate the extra effort to ensure the intent of FRPRD’s resident electors is accurately reflected in the final tally,” he wrote.
The error sparked calls to invalidate the ballot measure from political activist Jon Caldara, president of the , a libertarian think tank.
“If they can’t get the district boundaries right for their inaugural election, how can they get trains to run on time?” Caldara said in a statement. “Are they going to tax more voters by accident, too?”
Caldara called for the rail district and the secretary of state’s office to deem Issue 7A invalid.
In Arapahoe County, approximately 262,000 Arapahoe County voters received ballots that erroneously included Issue 7A, Clerk Joan Lopez said in a statement.
“The most important thing we want all voters to be assured of is that their vote will be counted in a fair, transparent fashion,” Lopez said. “They do not need to take any steps other than voting their ballot as they normally would.”
Lopez added the county will follow guidance from the Secretary of State’s office “once they describe a path forward.”
Meanwhile, ballots sent to other Arapahoe County voters despite those voters living within the rail district, the clerk’s office said in an update posted online.
Sheri Davis, the Douglas County clerk and recorder, said in an email to The Denver Post that Issue 7A was included on all ballots sent to Douglas County voters for the Nov. 3 general election.
The Douglas County clerk’s office never received an updated map or clarification on boundaries from the rail district, and the only map provided to her office showed all of Douglas County within the rail district, Davis said.
The clerk’s office mailed just over 289,000 ballots. It is unclear how many of those fall within the Front Range Passenger Rail District’s new boundaries and will actually be counted in the election because the clerk’s office has not received an updated map, said Laura Skirde, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County clerk’s office.
Douglas County voters should complete and return their ballots as normal, Davis said, and the clerk’s office will ensure that every valid vote is counted. Davis is consulting with the secretary of state and other counties involved to figure out which votes are valid.
The clerk’s office started hearing from voters on Monday about whether or not they should have been included in the Issue 7A question, Skirde said.
Adams County was also not notified of the changes to the rail district’s boundaries before mailing ballots, county spokesperson Julie Jackson said in a statement.
“Our job is to provide Adams County voters with secure and transparent elections, according to the law, and this issue will not affect that mission,” Jackson said. “Itap important our voters know they can still complete and return their ballots, and our office will ensure every valid vote is counted.”
Issue 7A is a .333% permanent sales tax increase — 3.3 cents on a $10 purchase, or 33 cents per $100 dollars — for communities along the expanded Colorado Connector route and would add stops in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Sterling Ranch in Douglas County and Littleton.
The rail district is already set to launch a northern route in 2029, which will run three daily trips between Denver’s Union Station and Fort Collins with stops in Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder, Longmont and Loveland with funding from the Colorado Department of Transportation and Regional Transportation District. If the measure passes, Front Range Passenger Rail leaders say they will add a fourth daily trip north, along with three daily trips from Denver’s Union Station south to Pueblo.
The Front Range Passenger Rail District was created in 2012, but its boundaries shrank after the General Assembly approved , which was signed by Gov. Jared Polis in May.
The rail district is unique in the state because its boundaries are set by statute and it is not governed under state laws that apply to other taxing districts, Butzin’s letter said. Because of that, the district was not required to file boundary maps like other taxing authorities such as metro districts.
The district supported state lawmakers changing the boundary because it tied district borders to the municipalities that most directly benefit from the proposed passenger rail services. That should have made it easier for county clerks to administer elections, according to Butzin’s letter.
“In hindsight, as a best practice, we should have informed each of you directly of these changes,” Butzin wrote. “We regret that this was not effectively communicated to each of you.”
Sal Pace, general manager for the rail district, released a statement echoing that the agency should have walked county clerks through the changes.
“Although we weren’t legally obligated to do so, it would have helped avoid the confusion that followed,” Pace said.
District officials have been assured only eligible votes will be counted, Pace said.
Ballots are in the mail and processing begins on Oct. 19.
