Douglas County Voters Face Three Questions on Commissioner Elections on Nov. 3 Ballot

Douglas County voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to expand their board of commissioners and how those seats would be filled.

Three separate questions appear on the ballot. The first asks whether to increase the commission from three members to five. Question 201 follows: if the board grows, should the five seats be divided into districts, or should three seats be district-based with two elected countywide? Question 1A, added by the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, asks whether all registered county voters should continue to elect all commissioners if the board is expanded to five.

The questions stem from the '3 to 5' initiative, which gathered more than 20,000 signatures and was approved for the ballot in August. Angela Thomas, founder of the initiative, said the effort was intended as a straightforward citizen petition. 'When they did this in Boulder County, it went as smooth as silk,' Thomas said. 'In Douglas County, the county commissioners have blocked everything that we can do.'

Commissioners Abe Laydon, George George Teal and Kevin Van Winkle added the two additional measures. Laydon, Teal and Van Winkle have argued that expanding the board could cost the county upwards of $1.3 million. Thomas and other proponents of the initiative have called that figure overinflated.

State Rep. Bob Marshall of Douglas County filed a lawsuit on Sept. 7 in district court against the county and its board of commissioners. He sought to strike the two measures the board added, arguing the board cited a nonexistent state law to justify a secret meeting about reshaping the questions. A judge ruled the measures would remain on the ballot, but Marshall said the parties would return to court if 1A passes. 'Oh, yeah, we're going to be back in court,' Marshall said when asked how 1A would affect the other questions.

Teal said the added measures give residents choices. He said he heard from residents who wanted to preserve at-large elections for all commissioners. Teal said that if 1A receives more votes overall than 201, 1A would take precedence. Thomas called 1A 'shady-ass language to confuse the voters' and said she was unsure how it interacts with 201.

Marshall introduced a bill in 2026 that would have required non-home-rule counties to move away from at-large commissioners, but it did not advance. He said he supports district-based commissioners. 'Hopefully, there's going to be enough groundswell to override them on this so we can get some structural change,' Marshall said. The Douglas County ballot questions are scheduled for the Nov. 3 election.