Local ballot measures

Polling for Colorado special districts

Recreation, library, fire, health, water, and transit districts, and regional transportation authorities, go to voters for mill levies, sales taxes, bonds, and TABOR revenue retention. Their voters often know little about the district itself, so a poll has to measure awareness as well as support.

Measures we have polled

Telluride and San Miguel County · 2024

SMART gondola and transit funding, 3A

Property, sales, and lodging taxes raising $8.2 million a year so the regional transit authority can take over and eventually replace the Telluride–Mountain Village gondola and expand bus service.

Passed, 53% to 47%

What special districts bring to voters

Mill levy increases and extensions
Sales and lodging taxes for regional transportation authorities
Bonds for facilities and equipment
TABOR revenue retention (de-Brucing)
Formation and boundary questions

What the poll answers

Can it pass? Support and intensity among the voters who will turn out in that election.
How much, and for what? The amount, rate, or duration voters will accept, and the priorities that carry it.
In what words? The TABOR ballot title voters will actually read.
With what argument? The case for and against, tested head to head.

Polling this electorate

Special district boundaries cross city and county lines, and many districts hold their regular elections in May of odd years, when turnout is far lower than in November. We sample from the voter file inside the district boundary and model the electorate for the election date you choose, which is often the first decision the poll informs.

Questions

May or November: which election should our district use?

It depends on who turns out. A May election draws a small, highly engaged electorate; November draws more voters who know less about the district. We model both and show how the measure fares in each.

Our voters barely know the district exists. Can a poll help?

Yes. We measure awareness first, then test which services and descriptions of the district move support, so the ballot language and the campaign start from what voters actually know.

Can a district pay for polling on its own measure?

Colorado’s Fair Campaign Practices Act bars a local government from spending public money to urge a yes or no vote on a ballot issue once it has been referred or submitted for a title, so government-funded research usually comes first: whether to go to the ballot at all, for how much, for which projects, and in which election. Persuasion and message testing after referral are typically paid for by the campaign committee. Your attorney has the final word on where that line falls for your measure.

All local ballot measures → Cities and towns → Counties → School districts →

Talk to us about your research

Keating Research is based in Denver. You work directly with the people who design, field, and analyze your research. We travel throughout Colorado and the Mountain West for in-person work: client meetings, board and staff retreats, and presentations to city councils, commissions, and agencies.

Contact us