RBC I Election day on Tuesday brought good news to the Rio Blanco County voters in many respects, but not all votes went the way the supporters wanted.
The countywide broadband issue passed easily with county voters deciding on Ballot Proposition 1A, but backers of the Meeker School District mill tax levy override were disappointed again.
Backers of Proposition 1A, which gives the Rio Blanco County Commissioners permission to work with outside entities in an effort to expand broadband communications to Rangely, Meeker and much of rural Rio Blanco County, saw an easy victory. Without the vote, the county is forbidden from competing with private entities. Passage means the county can now work with those entities to bring broadband to homes and businesses.
The measure passed by a margin of 2,109 in favor and 509 opposed, which equates to a 76- to 18-percent margin.
Not so lucky were the backers of Meeker Proposition 3A, which would have raised residential and commercial property tax rates within the school district to increase district revenue by more than $950,000. That vote was 819 votes in favor of the measure compared to 887 opposed, a difference of roughly 2 percent. An increased mill levy election was also voted down by school district voters in November 2013.
The election saw the largest voter turnout possibly ever in Rio Blanco County as 73 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
County Clerk Nancy Amick said that 2,779 voters cast ballots with 433 of those coming into her offices in Meeker and Rangely on Tuesday. That means more than 80 percent of those who did vote cast early ballots.
Amick said the turnout was the highest since she started keeping records in 1998. The second highest voter turnout, she said, was in 1998, when 2,664 voters cast ballots. She said that since that 1998 vote, the county has averaged 2,507 votes at each election.
All candidates for county office won as the Republicans, all unopposed, made a clean sweep.
All judges up for retention won their votes, and all state propositions and amendments were voted down statewide and countywide except the school board meeting requirements, which passed statewide and locally.
Statewide, incumbent Sen. Mark Udall was defeated by an unofficial 5 percent, with Cory Gardner having been declared the winner roughly an hour after polls closed.
With the vote going back and forth overnight and with the usually Democratic Front Range votes coming in late, incumbent Gov. John Hickenlooper was declared winner over challenger Republican Bob Beauprez at roughly 8 a.m.
“The election ran very well,” Amick said of the county process, which wrapped up all its work at roughly 12:30 a.m. “We had a great bunch of (28 to 30) judges who helped with the election, and I don’t think they could have done a smoother job.”
All voting numbers reported here are unofficial and will remain so until the county commissioners approve the canvassed numbers on Nov. 13. For complete results, visit the new county website at rbc.us.
