Five Colorado counties vote to secede; coal industry seems to take major hit in Washington election

Five of the 11 Republican-heavy Colorado counties that had secession on the ballot Tuesday voted in favor of the measure, but the counties still need approval from state lawmakers and Congress to secede. But the vote in the five counties sent the message proponents wanted, which is that "they have become alienated from the more urbanized Front Range and are unhappy with laws passed during this year's legislative session, including stricter gun laws and new renewable-energy standards," Monte Whaley reports for The Denver Post. (Post photo by R.J. Sangosti: Pro-secession sign in Washington County)

In Yuma County, 81.4 percent of voters favored secession, the highest of the five; 57 voted in favor and 13 against. In Kit Carson County it received 54.2 percent, the lowest of the five. Jeffrey Hare, a 51st state advocate, told Whaley, "The heart of the 51st State Initiative is simple: We just want to be left alone to live our lives without heavy-handed restrictions from the state Capitol." (Read more)

Statewide, Colorado voters shot down Amendment 66, a $1 billion income tax hike to fund education, with a 66 percent "no" vote, ABC 7 News in Denver reports: "The measure would have raised income taxes from 4.63 percent to 5 percent for taxable income up to $75,000 a year.". . . The amendment would have also required that at least 43 percent of state income, sales and excise tax revenue be set aside to pay for public education." (Read more) 

Also in Colorado, the cities of Lafayette, Boulder and Fort Collins approved measures to ban hydraulic fracturing in their towns, while a similar plan in Broomfield failed by 13 votes, Blake Sobczak and Peter Behr report for Environment & Energy News: "Lafayette's ballot initiative contained the strictest language, establishing an outright ban on fracking and preventing the movement of drilling waste or chemicals through town." Voters in Loveland were also supposed to vote on a measure, but it was delayed. In Ohio, a hotbed of fracking, voters in Oberlin approved a similar measure, while one failed in Youngstown. (Read more)

The coal industry may have taken a major hit in a small-town election in northwest Washington that garnered national attention, with environmental groups and the coal industry donating thousands to the elections. "If the Whatcom County Council elections were a referendum on a proposed coal export terminal, then the community appears to have taken a stand against it," Ralph Schwartz reports for the Bellingham Herald. Four seats were at stake on the council, which will vote on permits that would allow construction of a proposed $600 million port in Bellingham that would ship 48 million tons of coal per year to Asia from Wyoming and Montana, enough to power between 15 to 20 power plants. Brian Rosenthal reports for The Seattle Times that pair of challengers took 55 and 54 percent of the votes in unofficial returns, while the incumbents who oppose the port received 57 and 56 percent of the vote. (Read more)

Texans narrowly approved Proposition 6, which dedicates $2 billion to the state water plan to help a state hurt by drought, with 51.5 percent (3,763 voters) voting in favor and 48.5 percent (3,534 voters) against, Paul Weber and Will Weissert report for the Tyler Morning Telegraph. House Speaker Joe Straus, a Republican, "called the results 'a resounding and overwhelming victory' for the bipartisan campaign that he championed. Straus told supporters, “I think you saw stakeholders who don’t always agree with one another come together in a very collaborative way.” (Read more)

In what has to be the most confusing election result, it appears that voters in Novi, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, voted for and against the same proposal. Voters had the chance to decide whether the town will put official notices on its website instead of the local newspaper, a move that has some community papers fearful that other government organizations will do the same thing. Since ballot proposals are limited to 100 words, the proposal had to be split into two parts, reports the Observer and Eccentric, which covers the Detroit suburbs. Strangely, one passed, and the other was not only rejected, but rejected big, with 59 percent against it.

Lisa McGraw, public affairs manager with the Michigan Press Association, told The Rural Blog, "I don't know why one would pass and one would not. My initial analysis of this is Proposition 2 (which passed by 260 votes) is kind of general and does still maintain there is an option for newspaper noticing. Proposition 3 (which was defeated by 1,169 votes) is specific to which organizations and looks like it eliminates newspaper notice." McGraw, though, said, "It doesn’t look like they can eliminate newspapers for the specific things cited."

Here is how the City of Novi worded Proposal 2: "Shall Section 15.2 of the Novi Charter, which currently requires publication of notices, ordinances and proceedings to be either by newspaper publication or, alternatively, by posting in the office of the Clerk and five other places in the City if the form of publication is not prescribed by Charter or law, be amended to allow publication through one or more of the following: posting in a newspaper, posting on the City’s website or publishing by any other means or methods appropriate to properly inform the general public?"

Proposal 3 read: "Shall Section 3.12 of the Novi Charter, relating to notices of election, Section 6.1, relating to Council meetings, Section 7.5, relating to publication of ordinances, Section 8.7, relating to emergency appropriations, Section 8.11, relating to annual audits, Section 9.15, relating to notification of the due date of taxes and Section 14.1, relating to public utility franchises, be amended to delete references to publication being required by newspaper or posting in certain public places and to replace such language with the requirement that publication shall be 'as required by law or this Charter?'" (Read more)