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Colorado Springs residents appear to have rejected a ballot question that sought to more permanently ban recreational marijuana sales in the city, according to updated election results from the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Thursday night.
Final unofficial results updated at 8:23 p.m. showed the City Council-backed Question 2D, which proposes amending the city charter to prohibit recreational marijuana establishments in Colorado Springs, was failing 49.4% to 50.6%.
In total, 387,297 ballots have been counted for just under 78% voter turnout, according to clerk’s data.
Conversely, the competing resident-backed Question 300, which asks voters to authorize the city’s roughly 90 existing medical marijuana shops to also opt into selling retail cannabis products, continued to pass Thursday by a vote of 54.7% to 45.3%.
Recreational marijuana is currently prohibited in Colorado Springs by ordinance, but a voter-approved ballot initiative would overturn that ban.
The county clerk released updated results Thursday after verifying additional ballots, including some that required extra steps to address issues like missing signatures or identification checks, as well as military and overseas ballots. The eight-day period for addressing these “cured” ballots and counting returned military and overseas ballots ended Wednesday night.
It was unclear Thursday night exactly how many more ballots were counted, but County Clerk and Recorder Steve Schleiker earlier this week estimated the number was in the hundreds.
The results will be officially called once the Canvass Board certifies the vote count on Nov. 27, but Thursday’s updated results provide a solid idea of how official results could stand.
After initial returns were reported on Election Day and throughout much of last week, Question 2D was passing — but the vote flipped Saturday evening after officials finished tabulating ballots cast on Election Day.
Ballot Question 300 has continued to pass in the nine days since the election, by wider margins with every updated vote count.
If retail sales are officially legalized in Colorado Springs once election results are certified later this month, it is still unknown if a recent city ordinance that seemed to preemptively limit shops’ possible operating locations mostly to the city’s eastern side will go into effect.
The ordinance prohibits facilities from selling recreational cannabis within one mile of K-12 schools, residential and child care, or drug or alcohol treatment facilities. No medical marijuana shops would be able to sell recreational products at their current locations under this ordinance.
Question 300 proposes less stringent setbacks; it would prohibit recreational marijuana shops from operating within 1,000 feet of schools and other facilities.
Colorado Springs officials have not given a clear answer about whether the zoning ordinance will take precedence over the setback requirements in Question 300.
On Thursday, city spokesman Max D’Onofrio again said there is no update from the city at this time.
“As we wait for the election results to be certified, we are closely reviewing the citizen-initiated ordinance and other pertinent city regulations. We do not have a timeline for when this review will be complete, and it would be inappropriate for the city to speculate on outcomes until this review is finished,” he said in an email.
Meghan Graf, a spokesperson for the resident-backed pro campaign Citizens for Responsible Marijuana Regulation, last week called on the city government to honor residents’ decision to allow sales if Question 300 is approved.
In an emailed statement Thursday night, she said, “Today is a win for Colorado Springs voters, who chose (recreational) marijuana legalization over an outright ban. This just put it to rest.”
Graf has not answered previous questions from The Gazette about whether the pro campaign could challenge the city’s restrictive ordinance in court, should officials determine it would supersede the setbacks laid out in Question 300.
”}]] Colorado Springs residents appear to have rejected a ballot question that sought to more permanently ban recreational marijuana sales in the city, according to updated election results from the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Thursday night. Read More
