Douglas County voters to weigh expanding commissioners to five
Updated: Aug 29
Published by: Complete Colorado
CASTLE ROCK–Douglas County voters will decide this November whether to grow their elected county commission from three seats to five, following confirmation that a citizen-initiated petition effort gathered enough valid signatures to make it on the ballot.
The county’s clerk and recorder office issued a statement of sufficiency earlier this week after reviewing petitions submitted by organizers of what’s known as the 3-to-5 Initiative. Of the 23,040 signatures turned in, 20,434 were validated, a more than an 88% success rate that comfortably cleared the just over 15,000 signature threshold required by state law.
Growing the commission
Organizers began collecting signatures in March, pushing a two-part proposal: first, whether the county should grow its governing board from three commissioners to five; and second, if voters say yes to expansion, how those additional seats should be filled. That second question offers a choice between a fully district-based system, where each of the five commissioners represents a distinct geographic area, or a hybrid model pairing three district seats with two at-large positions.
Currently, all three commissioners are elected countywide rather than by district, a model organizers argue hasn’t kept pace with the county’s growth.
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