Boulder County Commission Expansion to Five Members

Question 200 enlarges the Boulder County Board of Commissioners from three members to five. Residents placed it on the ballot by initiative petition under C.R.S. 30-10-306.5, which calls for signatures from at least eight percent of the county's votes for secretary of state in the last general election. Based on the 2022 results, the clerk set that requirement at 13,064 signatures. The clerk issued a statement of sufficiency on August 5, 2026, and on August 25 the commissioners voted 3 to 0 in Resolution 2026-056 to fix the ballot titles "in the form petitioned for."

A yes vote gives the board two more seats. A no vote keeps three, each living in one of three districts and elected by the whole county. The question sets no tax, fee or debt and states no cost for the added seats.

If voters approve, the commissioners pass a resolution expanding the board, the county says. The board must convene a redistricting commission in 2027, the new seats go on the ballot at the general election of November 7, 2028, and the board has five members in office from January 2029. Question 201, which counts only if Question 200 passes, chooses between five commissioners elected by district voters alone and three so elected plus two elected countywide.

Petitions for a five-member board fell short in 2018, when organizers said they had gathered about 1,100 of the 10,835 signatures needed, and again in 2019, the Longmont Times-Call reported. In both years, backers failed to persuade the commissioners to refer the question themselves.

Two of the three sitting commissioners, Claire Levy and Marta Loachamin, oppose expansion, The Denver Post reported on September 8. The third, Ashley Stolzmann, sits on the organizing committee of Big Tent Boulder County, the group driving the effort. Stolzmann said both of her colleagues were taking time off, and the Post reported that the county could not conduct business until it regained a quorum. "If you have five people, that is much less likely to happen," she said. Loachamin said the county, facing a $13 million budget squeeze, had bigger priorities: "Redistricting is not a priority for me." Bob Yates of Big Tent Boulder County said the county, now home to 330,000 people, "has simply outgrown the 1861 model," referring to the year Boulder County was founded.