More Signatures for Louisville Petitions

The number of signatures a Louisville petition needs is fixed in two sentences of the Home Rule Charter, and 2E rewrites both. Section 7-1(c) sets how many registered electors must sign a petition to initiate a proposed ordinance, and Section 7-2(c) sets how many must sign to force a public vote on an ordinance the City Council has adopted. The amendment raises the initiative requirement from 5 percent to 7.5 percent of the city's registered electors and the referendum requirement from 2.5 percent to 5 percent.

City staff reported 16,203 active registered voters as of July 6, 2026. Staff's table uses 16,203 active voters and rounds its illustrative counts to 1,215 instead of 810 for an initiative, and 810 instead of 405 for a referendum. If 16,203 were the applicable legal base, the charter's 'at least' requirements would mean 1,216 instead of 811 signatures for an initiative, and 811 instead of 406 for a referendum. The table counts active voters; the charter counts every elector registered on the date state statutes set. The referendum requirement under 2E equals what an initiative requires today.

An initiative lets Louisville's registered electors propose an ordinance under the power the Colorado Constitution reserves to them. The City Clerk rejects the form of an initiative petition whose ordinance covers more than one subject, before it circulates. A referendum lets electors require that an adopted ordinance go to an election; emergency ordinances are exempt. For four years after an election, the council may not substantively amend or repeal an ordinance voters adopted by initiative, or readopt one they repealed by referendum, without voter approval. The council needs no petition: Section 7-6 lets it submit any measure to voters by ordinance.

The amendment leaves the recall petition requirement, 25 percent of the votes cast for the office at the officer's last election, as it stands. A petition to amend the charter follows state statutes under Section 2-5, outside the two sections Question 2E changes.

The council introduced Ordinance No. 1931, Series 2026, which refers the question, on July 14 and set its public hearing and second reading for July 21; a charter amendment the council proposes needs the votes of at least two-thirds of the entire council. The ordinance finds that Louisville's requirements "are lower than the signature requirements in many other Colorado municipalities." City staff surveyed 17 cities and towns, among them Superior, Lafayette, Erie, Broomfield, Longmont, Boulder and Fort Collins, and reported an average initiative requirement of 10 percent.

Question 2G adds a step for initiated ordinances and charter amendments: proponents first submit their text to the City Manager for review and comment at a public meeting. Its ordinance adds a Section 7-10 and amends Section 2-5, and it leaves the signature sentences that 2E rewrites alone. Voters decide the two separately, and each ordinance takes effect only if a majority voting on November 3 approves its question.