Press Release

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025
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Municipalities across Colorado vote on candidates, ballot measures

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, Denver, Colo. – On Nov. 4, voters in at least 67 cities and towns across Colorado considered local candidates and/or ballot measures in municipal elections. Of these elections, 43 were regularly scheduled and 23 were special elections. Across the state, 138 municipal ballot issues and questions were considered. At least five municipalities canceled their regular elections.
The following results are unofficial and subject to change.

Tax issues
Sales and use tax increases passed in:

• Aspen – for providing support to the local school district
• Evans – for street maintenance
• Fort Morgan – for an aquatics center
• Merino – for the health, safety, and welfare of residents, currently passing by a margin of three votes
• Pagosa Springs – to construct, operate, and maintain sewage and wastewater facilities
• Timnath – for a recreation center
• Westminster – to fund emergency services personnel, a new fire station, emergency vehicles and equipment, and street improvement and maintenance
  

Sales and use tax increases failed in:

• Ault – for community support services
• Bayfield – for park operations, a gym, and infrastructure and improvements for parks and trails
• Hot Sulphur Springs – a building material use tax for any municipal purpose
• Kiowa – to fund road construction and maintenance and infrastructure improvements
• Mead – to fund law enforcement services and facilities
• Pueblo – for the general fund
• Sterling – to fund street and sidewalk infrastructure
• Walsenburg – to offset law enforcement costs and expenses
  

Sales and use tax extensions passed in:

• Boulder – to extend the community, culture, resilience, and safety (CCRS) tax in perpetuity for building and maintaining capital improvement projects
• Cañon City – to extend a street infrastructure tax through 2036
• Florence – ten-year extension for construction and maintenance of streets and other rights of way
• Fort Collins – ten-year extension to fund certain capital projects, and a separate citizen-initiated question to indefinitely extend the Open Space Sales and Use Tax with modifications to the original ordinance
  
• Fort Lupton – 20-year extension for the town’s water acquisition and improvement fund to include related infrastructure
• Pueblo – five-year extension of an economic development tax for primary jobs and capital improvement projects
• Trinidad – indefinite extension of a public works tax for construction, maintenance, and improvements
  

New lodging tax and short-term rental taxes passed in:

• Basalt – to increase lodging taxes to fund workforce housing
• Kiowa – a lodging tax to fund infrastructure improvements and maintenance
• Mountain View – a lodging tax for any lawful municipal purpose

New and increased lodging and short-term rental taxes failed, though all by relatively small margins, in:

• Bayfield – an accommodations tax on short-term rentals to fund affordable and community housing, and economic development programs
• Rifle – to fund visitor improvements, historic preservation, special events, and beautification
• Severance – a lodging tax to fund public safety, infrastructure, and public parks and trails
• Vail – a short-term rental tax to fund housing initiatives

Property tax mill levy increases passed in:

• Durango – to fund fire protection and emergency services provided by the Durango Fire Protection District, but such increase will only be imposed if fire district voters approve the same level of mill levy increase
• Gunnison – for a new fire station and to fund emergency response operations
• Rico – to fund streets

Other tax and fee issues failed in:

• Cañon City – authorizing an excise tax on amusement, recreational excursions, and attractions to support operation of a community pool
• Louisville – a citizen-initiated ordinance to increase the categories of capital facilities for which impact fees are imposed, require a new impact fee study every five years, and require the formation of an Impact Fee Liaison Committee
• Manitou Springs – increasing an excise tax on ticket sales and admissions fees

Telluride voters rejected a measure authorizing an excise tax on ski lift tickets for maintaining and improving the gondola, while Mountain Village approved their own lift ticket tax to fund future gondola construction, maintenance, and operation.

Voters in Winter Park passed a measure to remove code references to a use tax that does not exist.

Rico voters approved a measure to increase the rate of sales tax revenue allocated for street reconstruction and maintenance, and another measure to transfer mills from sewer funding to streets funding.

Revenue retention and debt
The following municipalities approved measures seeking to increase municipal debt:

• Boulder – for capital improvement projects and non-profit projects, paid by the CCRS tax extension, if approved
• Denver – five bond questions that increase debt to fund infrastructure and facilities related to housing and shelter; health and human services; parks and recreation; transportation and mobility; and various art, cultural, library, and other city facilities
• Lafayette – to fund the rec center, construct a new civic center, and improve the parks and public works service center
• Yuma – to fund a municipal pool, to be repaid by a temporary sales and use tax increase
  

A debrucing measure to supplement the general fund in Delta failed.

Telluride voters rejected a measure to increase municipal debt to fund affordable housing with existing taxes previously approved by voters to fund affordable housing projects.

Election changes

Voters in Fort Collins approved a referred charter amendment that would make changes to align with previous voter approval for ranked choice voting, establish that registered electors must notify the city clerk before challenging the qualifications of any member of council, and increase the number of days to collect signatures for an initiative petition.

Firestone passed a measure to move their regular election date to the Tuesday on which the general statewide election is held in November of even years.

Governance

Cripple Creek voters passed a referred question to elect a home rule charter commission.

Voters in Pueblo rejected a referred question to amend the charter and change the form of government from council-mayor to council-manager.

In Telluride, a referred charter amendment passed to implement meeting attendance standards for councilmembers and the mayor.

Publication requirements

Fort Collins approved a referred charter amendment to modernize the process for adoption of ordinances, resolutions, and motions, including publication requirements such as addressing late publication and allowing publication online rather than a local newspaper.

Idaho Springs and Paonia each approved charter amendments that allow the city to publish information on paid bills and contracts on the city’s website instead of in a newspaper.

Voters in Hot Sulphur Springs rejected a measure that would allow the town to publish the text of new or proposed ordinances by title only, rather than publishing an ordinance in full.

Marijuana and Tobacco

Voters in Craig narrowly elected to increase sales tax on retail marijuana to fund the Moffat County Library and the Museum of Northwest Colorado.

A Denver referendum passed in favor of retaining an ordinance prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products.

Silt voters approved a sales tax increase on nicotine and tobacco products to fund parkland acquisition, parks maintenance, and community health, wellness, and recreation programs.

Three measures in Springfield failed to pass – two permitting recreational and medical marijuana centers, cultivation, and manufacturers, and a third question to authorize sales taxes on marijuana products sold.

Other charter amendments
Charter amendments passed in:

• Aurora – three of five charter amendments passed, including questions on updating charter language to replace gender-specific language with gender-neutral terms; to establish a procedure for filling vacant council seats; and to distinguish ward-specific and at-large council members as separate offices for the purpose of term limits
• Broomfield – six charter amendments that update language to reflect status as a city and county; prohibit elected officials from holding two elected offices; clarify vacancy procedures; require city council to adopt a code of ethics; establish that emergency ordinances take effect immediately after passage; and establish standards for approval of intergovernmental agreements
• Dacono – four charter amendments that allow the city manager to call special city council meetings; establish a vacancy immediately upon the mayor or a councilmember’s conviction for a disqualifying crime; restrict council compensation from changing during an elected official’s term; and clarify that mayor and councilmember are separate offices for
  the purpose of term limits as well as that terms are consecutive unless at least four years apart
• Denver – two charter amendments to change the method of electing at-large council members to separate at-large races requiring a majority of votes and to rename the Department of Excise and Licensing to the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection
• Englewood – a citizen-initiated charter amendment to require a plurality of votes for elected offices
• Fort Collins – three of four charter amendments passed to update and modernize charter language and eliminate transitional provisions; align the charter with state and federal laws regarding campaign finance and employee contributions to campaigns, allow executive sessions for any matter authorized by open meetings laws, and for records requirements to coordinate with open records laws; and to establish how term limits apply to partial terms and update process for filling vacancies on city council
• Littleton – a citizen-initiated charter amendment that limits land uses in certain residential zoning districts to uses permitted as of January 1, 2025, and requires notification of land use changes to affected property owners by first-class mail
• Parker – five charter amendments to add a new basis for a vacancy and update the process for filling vacancies; clarify that both mayor and council must comply with the charter’s conflict of interest provisions; prohibit elected officials from holding multiple offices at a time; eliminate the board of adjustment and appeals; repeal a provision that requires an ordinance to approve intergovernmental agreements, and allow approval of agreements to be done by resolution•
• Pueblo – one of three charter amendments passed, allowing municipal employees to run for public office without taking a leave of absence
• Sterling – amending the process for adoption of an ordinance including to allow publication by any reasonable notice prior to the final passage of an ordinance
• Thornton – four charter amendments to clarify that a partial term in office of less than two years does not constitute a term for purposes of term limits; to clarify vacancy rules for the mayor’s office and the timing of selecting a new mayor; to increase the time period to collect signatures for initiative and referendum petitions; and to modernize charter language to eliminate obsolete and superfluous language and correct grammar, clarify anti-nepotism provisions and authority regarding intergovernmental agreements and permits, and conform to changes in the law
• Woodland Park – three charter amendments to allow the clerk up to thirty days to review recall petition signatures; increase residency requirement from one year to two years for election or appointment as mayor or councilmember; and to make boards and commissions subject to term limits
  

Charter amendments failed in:

• Arvada – removing residency requirements for municipal judges
• Aurora – two of five charter amendments to eliminate residency requirements for the city manager and to eliminate the prohibition on officials holding multiple elective offices
• Fort Collins – one of four charter amendments that would allow the city to purchase real or personal property from councilmembers and to rent property to city employees when related to their job
• Kiowa – to approve compensation of the mayor and board of trustees during each budget cycle and adopt an ordinance implementing this change
• Montrose – a single charter amendment updating charter language by removing gender-specific language, removing definition redundancies, clarifying terms and term limits, requiring public notice of meetings on the city’s website, clarifying the number of council members required for executive sessions, removing editor’s notes, updating recall requirements, updating franchise and public utilities to adhere to state and federal laws, removing residency requirements for municipal judges, clarifying the city attorney section, having oaths of office specific to titles, and allowing the city clerk additional time to certify signatures on petitions for referendum and initiatives
• Pueblo – two of three proposed charter amendments to replace the current system of sending labor disputes to a public vote with binding arbitration and to allow municipal officer salary increases to take effect immediately
• Yuma – changing authority and supervision of the police chief and police department to the city manager from city council

Voters in Idaho Springs, Walsenburg, Wheat Ridge, and Victor rejected proposed charter amendments that would authorize both the clerk and treasurer’s positions to be appointed rather than elected.

Land use and traffic restrictions
Central City voters rejected an update to the land development code to permit sexually-oriented businesses in the historic downtown gaming zone district.

Four measures in Delta, each seeking authorization to sell certain city-owned parks failed.

Estes Park passed an ordinance that will require all rezonings and/or PUDs to receive approval from two-thirds of owners of all neighboring properties within 500 feet of the subject property. Another ordinance that would repeal the section of development code that provides density bonuses for attainable and workforce housing, and its associated height limits failed.

Voters in Fort Collins considered questions about the future use of the Hughes Stadium site, passing a measure referred by city council affirming the use and management plans developed through a “Civic Assembly” process, while rejecting a citizen-initiated question to require the site be used entirely as a city natural area.

Louisville rejected a citizen-initiated ordinance prohibiting residential rezoning of specified sites and establishing exceptions for housing that meets affordability thresholds.

A Salida measure advising the city council to restrict vehicular access on a portion of F Street during the summer months of 2026-2028 passed.

TransportationVoters in Craig, Hayden, Oak Creek, Yampa, and Steamboat Springs each approved municipal questions to approve the formation of the Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority.

The Colorado Municipal League thanks all the municipal clerks and their staffs who assisted CML staff in compiling this election information.

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Colorado Municipal League (CML) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization established in 1923 and represents the interests of 271 cities and towns. For more information on CML, please visit cml.org, call 303-831-6411, or stay connected on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.