Tuesday, November 22, 2022

2022 Election Results

At the county, city, BVSD and Boulder Library District level, all the measures excepting 2F Repeal Annexation of CU South passed. Boulder voters will be paying 5 new taxes and approved 1 tax extension.

At the state level, voters also approved most of the ballot measures. Interestingly, Boulder County was the only county that rejected Prop 121 to reduce the income tax rate, but Prop 121 passed statewide with 65% of the vote. The state ballot measures that failed were Amendment F Charitable Gaming (which didn’t even reach the 50% mark that its 2020 version received), Prop 124 Number of Liquor Store Locations and Prop 126 Third-Party Delivery of Alcohol.

After the Dobbs decision and the overwhelming Kansas vote this summer to protect a woman’s right to an abortion, the other abortion measures around the nation went the same way that the Kansas vote went and may have impacted the control of Congress. The Democrats right now have 50 seats in the US Senate – plus VP Harris’ tiebreaking vote – with one of Georgia’s seats going to a Dec 6 runoff.

The Republicans won control of the US House in the first election since decennial redistricting, by not by as many seats as expected in a midterm election. Colorado’s own 3rd congressional district returned Lauren Boebert to Washington, DC, but with a margin so close that Colorado automatically requires a recount. Our new 8th congressional district, drawn by an independent commission, was competitive, as expected, but won’t need a recount, with Democrat Yadira Caraveo prevailing.

In the state legislature, the Democrats have comfortable control of both houses. We’ll see if that means more or fewer referred measures in 2023 and 2024. Democrats won all the statewide seats, leading some people to say that Colorado is solidly blue now, not purple.