DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — In neighborhoods throughout Douglas County, there was a final push for people to cast their ballots and be aware of the home rule special election taking place on June 24.
Voters will decide if Douglas County should form a home rule charter commission, vote for three at-large charter commission members, and, within your district, choose six commissioners to represent you and your neighbors.
Groups on both sides of the ballot handed out flyers and had conversations with people about their say in this special election. Kelly Mayr, with Stop the Power Grab, explained that people in the community may not be aware of what this election means and the need to inform them about this matter.
"We honestly don't even know enough to be for or against it, and that's the problem. This was a special election, and it was very rushed. If this goes forward, they will have a really short amount of time to write what is basically a constitution for our government," Mayr said. "So we're just saying, if it's so good for the community, a community I've been part of for almost 30 years, then let's slow down. Let's do it right. What's the rush?"
Another worry Mayr brought up was the transparency of the county commissioners and "what they would do with this power."
"We don't know who will be on this committee that's going to fundamentally change our governmental structure. That's really scary. I have nine children, and seven still live in Douglas County. This could change the world for them. I think there's the potential for great harm here without any benefit they've been able to explain to us," Mayr said.
Amity Wicks also sees the need to educate people in the community, but unlike Mayr, she is hoping people will say yes to home rule. She believes that becoming a home-rule county will bring decision-making back to the most local level of control.
"It's a special place, and we want to preserve those things, and we know that there are people that don't really care about what we care about, and so we want to have a say over how our county makes decisions for our land use and other kinds of things that really directly affect our county and may not have anything to do with any other county," Wicks said.
As of Saturday evening, close to 60,000 ballots had been returned, with County Commissioner George Teal believing the numbers will keep rising.
"For the almost 30 years I've lived here, local control has always been a top issue here in the county, and so I am sure we're going to see good participation in this election, right up until, probably, 7 o'clock on Tuesday evening," Teal said.
Teal said home rule has been a topic of conversation in the county for years, and now is the right time to bring it to Douglas County. He explained that if approved, the Home Rule Commission would meet shortly thereafter and begin the process of drafting a home rule charter, which would then be put to a vote.
"Not only that, is it 21 people making these decisions on what goes in the charter; that charter doesn't become effective unless there's a vote of the people that pass it," explained Teal. "Hopefully, that'll be it in November, maybe it'll be later, but the entire county will have an opportunity to read every single word in that charter before they have an opportunity to vote on it. So to say that it's putting power in a limited number of hands, it's putting the power in the hands of the voters."
A list of ballot drop box locations can be found here, with drop boxes closing at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.