Fort Collins, Poudre School District and Colorado election results and live coverage

Election Day 2023 is here, Colorado.

Statewide, voters will decide the fates of the Proposition HH and Proposition II tax measures, while voters in municipalities and taxing districts across the state will determine future leadership and funding matters.

Here in Fort Collins, that includes ballot issues that will determine city funding for priorities including parks, transit, climate action and affordable housing, along with races for four seats on the city council. Poudre School District voters will decide three Board of Education races, while other races in Loveland and Windsor will be of intense local interest.

It's a wrap: Find out who won, lost in Colorado's 2023 election

Fort Collins City Council: Fort Collins voters pick 1 new council member, support others who voted for land use code

Fort Collins ballot issues: Fort Collins voters split approval of 2 tax increases

PSD Board: Progressive slate of candidates elected to Poudre School District Board of Education

Proposition HH: Voters reject Colorado Proposition HH that would have traded TABOR refunds for property tax relief

Proposition II: Colorado Proposition II wins big, adding more funding for universal preschool

Loveland groceries: Loveland voters overwhelmingly eliminate city's sales tax on groceries

Loveland URA: Loveland voters claim final say over future urban renewal projects, pass Question 301

Potyondy leads in District 4 race

Melanie Potyondy, running for the District 4 seat currently held by Shirley Peel, said after the second wave of results showed her with 53% of votes counted so far, she was cautiously optimistic. “I’m not going to consider it a victory until the numbers say so,” she said.

She hopes the numbers stay as strong they are and said she hopes to assume the seat. “I’m really excited about the opportunity.”

At her watch party at a friend’s residence, there were a lot of educators plus some neighbors and family, she said. It was intimate, fun and full of people who believe in her, she said, noting her pride in the volunteers who supported her campaign.

After going to work in her job as a school psychologist on Election Day, Potyondy said she was making get-out-the-vote phone calls up until leaving for her watch party. But she had voted long ago: “the day after I received my ballot.”

The Coloradoan was unable to reach Peel at the time of this update.

– Rebecca Powell

Adams

Fort Collins mayor, mayor pro-tem look forward from election wins

Voters overwhelmingly chose to retain Mayor Jeni Arndt, who had 92% of the votes counted as of 8:30 p.m., over write-in candidate Patricia Babbitt.

From her watch party, Arndt said Election Day is special because it’s when you get to hear what the community thinks. She said she trusts voters to make decisions to create the community they want.

Arndt also said she’s pleased that voter turnout is looking more robust this election than in past City Council elections, one of the goals of moving elections to November from April.

As for the city tax issues on the ballot, she said the faltering property tax ballot issue to fund affordable housing was always an uphill battle.

The support voters gave to the sales tax to fund parks and recreation, transit and clean air programs is an example of residents voting their preferences to get the things they want for their community.

The Coloradoan was unable to reach Babbitt on Tuesday night.

Mayor pro-tem Emily Francis said: "I feel pretty good so far," noting the results are not final but she does have 76% of the vote.

Regarding the property tax ballot issue, which was failing with only 37% of yes votes, Francis said if it isn’t what the community wants, then the next step is to bring people together to see how to tackle affordable housing.

Francis’ opponent Alexander Adams didn’t have any comment on his race. But he said he was pleased to see the property tax increase failing. And he said he was worried about the passage of the sales tax increase and its impact on the city’s poorest residents.

– Rebecca Powell

Polls have closed: Find Colorado, Fort Collins, Poudre School District 2023 election results

Along with this live blog and future stories, the Coloradoan has two places to find updated election results:

Statewide Proposition HH and Proposition II: Click here for results

Fort Collins, Poudre School District and other local races: Click here for results

Election results will be updated through Larimer County's last Tuesday night update, with further results updated beginning Wednesday morning.

– Eric Larsen

Larimer County's second round of results doesn't flip any races

As is typical, results from Larimer County's first release of results at 7:46 p.m. were largely unchanged after additional votes were counted and released just before 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Progressives in contested Fort Collins City Council and Poudre School District races are still winning; Fort Collins' quarter-cent tax increase to fund city priorities is still passing by a slim margin, and grocery shopping in Loveland free of the city's 3% sales tax is still on the horizon for Jan. 1.

Larimer County will now release a third round of results at roughly 11:30 p.m. before election workers call it a night. Tallying of unofficial results will then resume Wednesday.

So, what's close enough to flip with a dwindling number of votes still to be counted? Here's a race to watch: Thompson School District Board of Education District C incumbent Nancy Rumfelt trails challenger Briah Freeman 16,151-15,980. Can Rumfelt make up that 171-vote gap in late counting?

Estes Park School District R-3 also has a tight director race, with Brenda Wyss leading a four-person race by a margin of only 25 votes over Brad Shochat.

– Eric Larsen

Trailing candidates hold out hope for second release of results

Eric Hamrick, candidate for Fort Collins City Council District 2, said he and his campaign supporters watching results from his home are cautiously optimistic heading into the second release of results from the Larimer County Clerk's Office.

“We’re down; we’re not out yet,” he said.

He spent Election Day waving signs on street corners. “I had a great group of volunteers who worked very hard, and I’m very proud of them,” he said.

Hamrick said with results coming in batches, rather than all at once, it’s difficult to know what information to glean from the early results. The county's first release showed Hamrick trailing incumbent Julie Pignataro by 272 votes.

– Rebecca Powell

Loveland grocery, URA ballot issues passing by wide margins

Loveland voters are about to take control of urban renewal authority decisions and eliminate the city's tax on groceries. City ballot questions 300 and 301 are passing by roughly 2-to-1 margins, meaning that certain future Loveland Urban Renewal Authority decisions will have to be put to a citywide vote, and that groceries bought in the city will be free of the current 3% city sales tax effective Jan. 1, 2024.

– Eric Larsen

Arndt celebrates second term as Fort Collins mayor with supporters

At Stodgy Brewing in northwest Fort Collins, supporters of Mayor Jeni Arndt, District 6’s Emily Francis and District 2’s Julie Pignataro crowded in.

Supporters were generally more focused on their conversations than watching their phones for the first results, which came in about 7:45 p.m.

But when the results came, the outcome was favorable for all three, with Arndt logging about 92% of the nearly 21,000 votes counted in the race so far. Francis had about 76% of the 2,500 votes counted so far.

Pignataro, who was ahead by about 270 votes, at 53%, after the first release, did not attend the watch party due to illness.

It took about 20 minutes after the results came out for any announcement. The crowd cheered when a supporter quieted the room to declare Arndt would serve a second term as mayor.

– Rebecca Powell

A close race in Fort Collins' sales tax issue

Fort Collins' proposed quarter-cent sales tax to fund parks, transit and climate priorities may end up being the local race of the night. Tuesday's first release of results showed the measure passing by a slim margin of 104 votes (13,692 yes to 13,588 no).

City Ballot Issue 2B, which would boost affordable housing funding to $8 million per year, is headed toward failure with nearly 63% of counted ballots voting against it.

And, while two relatively mundane city code changes will pass, city voters are saying they want to maintain control of residency requirements for certain city staff, as Ballot Question 2E is failing by more than 1,000 votes.

– Eric Larsen

Poudre School Board progressives lead in early returns

A slate of progressive candidates appears poised to sweep the three contested races for the Poudre School District Board of Education. Kevin Havelda, Conor Duffy and incumbent board member Jessica Zamora all have cushions of at least 1,300 votes in the first round of reported returns Tuesday. Scott Schoenbauer, who ran on a ticket featuring "parents rights" issues along with candidates Kurt Kastein and Andrea Booth, was unopposed for the District A seat.

Zamora, the only incumbent running for reelection, had a substantial lead over challenger Caleb Larson, at 24 possibly the youngest candidate ever to run for the local school board, in the District G race with 20,564 votes to 12,843 in the first set of results released about 7:45 p.m. by Larimer County.

“It feels good; it’s a relief,” Zamora said. “I think our community spoke, and I think we’re going to move in the right direction, which is awesome.”

Zamora was watching the election returns with family and friends at Purpose Brewing and Cellars with Havelda and current PSD board members Rob Petterson, D.D. Anderson, Kristen Draper and Jim Brokish. Petterson, the board’s president, is term-limited and ineligible to run for reelection, while the terms of Draper and Brokish run through 2025.

Havelda and Duffy each held smaller leads over their opponents in races where incumbents were term-limited and ineligible to run for reelection. Havelda, Duffy and Zamora were running on a slate of sorts against the competing slate of Kurt Kastein and Andrea Booth. Although Larson drew support from many of the same organizations as Kastein, Booth and Scott Schoenbauer, who was elected without opposition to the District A seat, he insisted he was not part of their slate.

Havelda, a lawyer, had 18,501 votes in his District B race against Kastein, a former Fort Collins city council member who had 1,527.

Duffy had 17,263 votes to Booth’s 15,945 in the District F race.

Candidates must live in the geographic district they represent but are elected by all voters in the school district, which spans more than 1,800 square miles.

– Eric Larsen and Kelly Lyell

Arndt, Pignataro, Potyondy, Francis lead Fort Collins City Council races

Established progressives are leading the races for four Fort Collins City Council races, as incumbent Mayor Jeni Arndt leads her race, along with incumbent council members Julie Pignataro and Emily Francis, and progressive District 4 candidate Melanie Potyondy, who finished second to Shirley Peel in the city's last election.

Arndt was challenged by write-in candidate Patricia Babbitt. While early totals didn't tally her votes, Arndt had received 19,227 of 20,811 total votes counted in the county's first release of results.

– Eric Larsen

3 of 4 incumbents lead in Thompson school board races

Challenger Briah Freeman held a slim lead over incumbent Nancy Rumfelt in the Thompson School District Board of Education District C race. Freeman had 13,917 votes to Rumfelt’s 13,439.

The other two incumbents up for relection, Dawn Kirk and Stu Boyd, were both leading their races.

In District A, Kirk was leading challenger Ryan Wilcken with 15,257 votes to Wilcken’s 12,129.

In District G, Boyd was leading challenger Elizabeth Kearney with 14,810 votes to Kearney’s 12,305.

And in District D, where incumbent Pam Howard is term-limited and cannot run for reelection, Denise Chapman was leading Yazmin Navarro with 15,554 votes to Navarro’s 11,721.

− Kelly Lyell

Weld RE-4 school board incumbent losing

Patrick Miller, the only incumbent running in a contested race for reelection in the Weld RE-4 School District Board of Education election, was losing by a sizeable margin at 8:30 p.m.

Challenger Mark Leach had 4,240 votes to Miller’s 3,813 in the District D race for the Windsor-Severance school district, according to election results released by Weld County.

Jennifer Hansen held a similar-sized lead over Helen “Kathy” Ulrich in the District E race with 4,307 votes. Russell Smart, the board president who has held the District E seat since 2019, chose not to run for reelection.

Two other candidates ran unopposed for their seats on the Weld RE-4 school board, incumbent Raymond Ruth in District A and former Weld RE-4 Superintendent Karen Trusler in District B.

− Kelly Lyell

Colorado Proposition HH fails; Proposition II passes

The Associated Press has called the two statewide races in Colorado, as Proposition HH has failed, while Proposition II has passed based on unofficial, incomplete returns. HH received a "no" vote from 60% of voters by 7:45, while II received a 66% affirmative vote with an estimated 78% of votes counted.

– Eric Larsen

Colorado Proposition HH getting trounced in early returns

Coloradans looking for property tax relief may want to look to their county commissioners and the 2024 election. Proposition HH, this year's hotly-contested property tax relief package, is failing to find favor with voters in early returns.

Nearly 60% of the more than 500,000 statewide ballots counted by 7:20 p.m. were against the Democrat-backed measure to overhaul the state's tax system.

The Associated Press estimated at 7:25 that 52% of votes cast in the statewide election had been counted.

– Eric Larsen

Proposition II headed toward passage in early returns

With roughly 275,000 votes tallied statewide, Proposition II, which will let the state retain more tobacco tax revenue, appears headed toward passage with 70% of voters approving. The picture for hotly-debated Proposition HH, which would overhaul property taxes and related state funding, is less clear but potentially headed toward failure with 55% of voters opposing the ballot question in early returns.

– Eric Larsen

Fort Collins City Council member Shirley Peel gathers with supporters in south Fort Collins

City Council member and candidate Shirley Peel welcomed supporters at her watch party at The Taco Stop in south Fort Collins on Tuesday night.

A thank-you note to her volunteers was posted at a table at the restaurant, where televisions showed national election coverage and Champions League soccer commentary. Peel recounted how the business got started as a food cart and later opened in the pandemic era on South College Avenue.

Peel said her day was a little more low-key. After sign waving for a time Tuesday, she spent the day cleaning out the chicken coop at home and taking a 3-mile walk.

Without polls, it’s hard to know what the outcome will be, she said while waiting for results with those who had gathered by 6 p.m.

“I so appreciate all the hours spent knocking on doors, writing postcards, making phone calls and waving signs,” Peel’s thank-you note said.

– Rebecca Powell

Smooth sailing at Larimer County polls one hour from 7 p.m. deadline

While long lines at polling places can be the Election Day norm in other states, Colorado's mail ballot system has once again essentially erased such concerns in Larimer County.

As of 5 p.m., only the Voter Service and Polling Center at the Estes Valley Community Center showed a person waiting in line. By 6 p.m., that line of one had cleared.

Four centers in Fort Collins and one in Loveland showed no wait time, so it's still not too late to turn in a ballot, or even register and vote.

The voter centers still open in Fort Collins are:

• Larimer County Administrative Services, 200 W. Oak St.

• Colorado State University Lory Student Center

• Drake Centre, 802 W. Drake Road

• Front Range Community College, 4616 S. Shields St.

– Eric Larsen

Ballot counting might not be done Tuesday night

With more than 20,000 ballots coming in on Tuesday, the counting in Larimer County will stop late Tuesday and resume Wednesday as needed.

Larimer County Clerk Tina Harris announced just after 4 p.m. that more than 20,000 ballots had come in Tuesday. She said election workers will continue counting ballots until 11:30 p.m.

The clerk's office in the past few years has had a policy of suspending the work of counting ballots late Tuesday if more than 20,000 ballots come in on Election Day. Former clerk Angela Myers instituted the policy for the safety of election workers driving home on election night, sometimes in bad weather.

Harris said with the addition of new equipment, it might be possible to count more than 20,000 ballots on future election days. This election will provide data to help learn what's feasible, she told the Coloradoan last week.

More than 77,000 Larimer County ballots had come in by 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to a report from the Colorado Secretary of State's Office.

– Rebecca Powell

What's Colorado voter turnout looking like so far?

More than 76,000 Larimer County residents had returned their ballots as of a tally late Monday night, according to a report from the Colorado Secretary of State's Office.

Knowing an exact percentage of turnout isn't possible yet because people can still register to vote. But with more than 261,000 active registered voters in Larimer County as of last week, according to a tally provided by Larimer County Clerk Tina Harris, it's looking like around 29% of them have voted so far.

Data from the Secretary of State's Office shows that statewide turnout is somewhere around 26%, with just over a million people voting so far.

For comparison, last year's November election, a midterm election year, drew 71% of active registered voters. November 2021, with few statewide issues and only local races, saw 43% turnout. Fort Collins City Council races were not on the ballot that time because they were still held in April.

Statewide, the oldest voters have returned the most ballots so far, with people in the 65 to 74 age group accounting for about 27% them.

Next is 75 and older, at 20%, and 55 to 64, also approaching 20%.

– Rebecca Powell

How to vote and register to vote in Colorado on Election Day 2023

If you still need to turn in your ballot, receive a ballot or register to vote, you can do so right up until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Read our last-minute voter guide to learn where, when and how to participate in the election on deadline.

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When you vote today, you're lending your support to a vision for the future of Colorado, Fort Collins and Poudre School District, whatever that vision may be. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, the Coloradoan is here to provide you with sound, fact-based information to help you determine which candidates and initiatives will best work toward that vision.

Along with the work you've seen in the lead-up to this election, the Coloradoan will expand its legislative and political coverage in 2024 with election reporting fellows covering Colorado and Wyoming. With the presidential primary, state primary and state general elections ahead, help support the Coloradoan's work to keep you informed with a subscription for as little as $1 for six months of digital access to Coloradoan.com and the daily digital e-edition print edition replica.

Your visit subscribe.coloradoan.com today will keep independent, fact-based elections reporting strong in Fort Collins and beyond.

– Eric Larsen

Find information on Fort Collins, Poudre School District and other races at Coloradoan.com

Coloradoan senior reporters Pat Ferrier, Rebecca Powell and Kelly Lyell have worked since early October to compile comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Fort Collins, Poudre School District and statewide races. If you're still working toward a last-minute decision, visit our 2023 voter guide for more than 60 articles to help.

Visit our 2023 voter guide for more than 60 articles, candidate questionnaires, voter information and more, including Spanish-language guides supported by a grant from the American Press Institute, by clicking here.

Editor's note: This story has a correction. Turnout as of Tuesday morning was an estimated 29%.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins, PSD and Colorado 2023 election results and live coverage