20,000 Voters Signed for a Simple Question. Douglas County Commissioners Rewrote It.

PRESS RELEASE FROM CITIZENS FILING PROTEST TO COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' REWRITTEN 3-5 INITIATIVE BALLOT LANGUAGE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 31, 2026

Proponents of the 3-to-5 initiative file formal protest of the ballot title the Board set for a measure about its own size, citing an inflated cost figure, a tax-cut statute the Board itself said does not apply, and a process in which the Board judges its own work.

CASTLE ROCK, Colo.

— The proponents of the citizen initiative to expand the Douglas County Board of

County Commissioners from three members to five filed a formal protest this morning against the ballot title the Board adopted on Friday, August 28.

The protest, filed with the Board under the Board’s own 72-hour rule,

asks the commissioners to strike a 22-word preamble they inserted in front of the question, 20,434 verified Douglas County voters signed for. The question the voters signed asked simply whether the Board should grow from three commissioners to five.

The title the Board adopted now begins:

“At an ongoing estimated annual expense of $760,000 to $1,300,000 from County revenue that supports public safety, transportation, and essential county services, shall the membership of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners be increased from a three-member board to a five-member board?”

“Twenty thousand of our neighbors signed a neutral question that the County Clerk approved before a single signature was gathered,” said Angela Thomas, spokesperson for the 3 to 5 initiative. “Three commissioners then wrote a new version that tells voters a ‘yes’ vote takes money from public safety, and gave themselves the job of deciding whether that was fair. The county’s own numbers say two commissioners cost about $480,000 a year. The rest is a staffing wish list nobody voted on.”

WHAT THE PROTEST SAYS:

• The cost figure is not the measure’s cost. The county’s own August 28 presentation put the cost of two additional commissioners, salary, benefits and operating expense, at $481,708 a year with no new staff. The $760,000-to-$1.3 million range in the revised title assumes two to six new county employees that the measure does not create. Going from three commissioners to five is a 67 percent increase; the top of the range assumes that requires a 150 percent increase in staff. By Douglas County’s own staff, the cost is “subjective,” a notable report that was deleted from the published presentation, but presented in the meeting.

• The Board relied on a tax-cut statute that does not apply. Commissioners cited a state law requiring ballot titles to name “the three largest areas of program expenditure.” That language exists only in a provision for measures that cut taxes, and it is addressed to the state Title Board, not to county commissioners. Minutes earlier, while striking the words “without raising taxes” from their own draft, the

  Board said on the record: “This has nothing to do with raising taxes … so taxpayer bill of rights is not applicable."

• The Board cut the one accurate clause and kept the argument. The published draft said the measure would be paid for “without raising taxes.” The Board deleted that as “unnecessary clutter,” then kept the dollar figure and the list of services. The word “essential” was added from the dais.

• The County Clerk had already approved the question as impartial. State law required the Clerk and Recorder to approve the petition before circulation and required its summary to be “true and impartial” and “not an argument, or likely to create prejudice.” The Board replaced that vetted language with language it wrote itself.

• The Board wrote, and now judges, the title of a measure about the Board under a procedure it adopted after the measure qualified. The petition was filed July 24 and certified August 12. Thirteen days later, and three days before setting the title, the Board adopted a rule making itself the only forum for protests of ballot titles it sets, with no independent hearing officer. The Colorado Constitution requires

  local officials to avoid conduct that "creates a justifiable impression among members of the public" that the public trust is being violated.

  
  

• What the proponents are asking for

  The protest asks the Board to strike the preamble and put the voters’ question on the ballot as state law frames it: “Shall the membership of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners be increased from a three-member board to a five-member board?”— followed by the two election-method options the statute requires. It also asks that the hearing be held in open session with public comment, and that the protest, the full record, and the Board’s written decision be posted alongside the resolution on the county website. “We are not asking for anything special,” Thomas said. “We are asking for the question the voters asked for to be the question that appears on the ballot.”

  
  

Background

Douglas County is home to more than 400,000 residents and is governed by three commissioners, all elected countywide. Under C.R.S. § 30-10-306.5, voters in counties over 70,000 may petition to expand the board to five. The 3 to 5 initiative submitted 23,040 signatures on July 24, 2026; the Clerk and Recorder certified 20,434

as valid on August 12, about 35 percent more than the 15,087 required. It is the first citizen-initiated countywide measure in Douglas County since 1994. The measure will appear on the November 3, 2026 ballot.

Find the full protest and supporting record here. The Hearing for the Ballot Title Protest is scheduled for Thursday, September 3 at 3pm at 100 3rd Street, Castle Rock.