Front Range Passenger Rail hits glitch with ballot problem
Voters who shouldn’t be able to weigh in on whether to increase taxes to fund expanded passenger train service along the Front Range received the question on their ballots this week, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office confirmed.
Some voters in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Weld counties who live outside of the Front Range Passenger Rail District are seeing Ballot Issue 7A on their ballots in error, as first reported by 9News.
It was not immediately clear how the error happened and how many people received the ballot question who shouldn’t have.
Spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office Jack Todd said in an email that the elections department will help the affected counties make sure that “only eligible voters have their vote in this contest counted.”
Clerks offices in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Weld counties and a spokesperson for the campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Limited passenger train service between Denver and Fort Collins is already planned to start in 2029 with just three daily round trips.
Ballot Issue 7A asks voters in several Front Range cities whether they want to tax themselves to pay for more frequent service with a stop as far south as Pueblo aboard a train recently named the Colorado Connector, or CoCo.
The rail measure is intended to ask 2.4 million voters in about 30 communities from 13 counties that would be served by the rail service to approve a new 0.333% sales tax increase — amounting to about 33 cents on a $100 purchase.
Ballot Issue 7A
What would a sales tax increase to pay for a Front Range passenger train cost you?
Ballo Issue 7A would add a 0.333% sales tax in the Front Range Passenger Rail District — about 33 cents on every $100 of taxable purchases. Enter what you spend in a year to see the added cost.
Added tax per year
$66.00
On $20,000 of taxable spending.
The sales tax increase is projected to raise $295 million annually. The measure also asks voters to allow the Front Range Passenger Rail District to sell $580 million in bonds.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers trimmed out many parts of the Front Range counties that first made up the tax district when it was created in 2021. Now the district includes municipalities and special districts where at least 20% of the population lives within five miles of a planned train station, including Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Sterling Ranch, Littleton, Denver, Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins.
