Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande and Saguache counties elect one district attorney for the 12th Judicial District. The Colorado Constitution sets the office's term at four years in Article VI, Section 13. Article XVIII, Section 11, which Colorado voters adopted by initiative in 1994, sets a default limit of two consecutive terms for nonjudicial elected officials of political subdivisions, with three terms allowed for offices whose terms are two years or shorter. Terms count as consecutive unless they fall at least four years apart. The section opens with its purpose: "to broaden the opportunities for public service and to assure that elected officials of governments are responsive to the citizens of those governments." In Davidson v. Sandstrom (2004), the Colorado Supreme Court held that the limit covers district attorneys, because a judicial district is a political subdivision and its district attorney holds an elected, nonjudicial office.
Under that limit, a district attorney serves at most eight straight years, then stays out of the office for four before serving again. Section 11 lets a subdivision's voters lengthen, shorten or eliminate the limit. Question 7A eliminates it, "allowing the District Attorney of the 12th Judicial District to serve an indefinite number of terms." A yes vote removes the limit from the office, and so from whoever holds it, now or later. Elections every four years continue. A no vote keeps the two-term limit.