What's on Your Douglas County Ballot in November 2026: Every Local Race and Measure, Explained

The county has posted its composite sample ballot for November 3, and we read all twelve pages. It is the longest ballot Douglas County has seen in years: seven pairs of names for governor, 14 statewide measures, six county offices, a school tax, and three separate questions about how many commissioners you should have. The most local fight on it is also the one still in court.

Here is everything a Douglas County voter can see. Your own ballot will be shorter: you only get the districts you live in.

Statewide: a three-way governor's race and five open offices

Governor. Phil Weiser and Lesley Dahlkemper (Democratic) versus Victor Marx and George Markert (Republican), with Greg Lopez and Taralyn Romero on the ballot as unaffiliated, plus four minor-party pairs. We have written twice about why this county is the place to watch this race: Lopez qualifying after winning the county's congressional slice by nearly 12 points in 2024, and whether DougCo could actually go blue.

U.S. Senate. John Hickenlooper (D) defends the seat against Mark Baisley (R), Douglas County's own state senator from District 4, plus four minor-party names. Baisley's run is why SD-4 is open this year.

Attorney General: Jena Griswold (D) versus Michael J. Allen (R). Secretary of State: Amanda Gonzalez (D) versus James Wiley (R). State Treasurer: Jeff Bridges (D) versus Kevin Grantham (R). All three are open seats with minor-party candidates too. Voters in the county's 6th Congressional District portion also pick a CU Regent: Veanessa Burbage (R), Ilana Spiegel (D) or Joe Johnson (L).

The 14 statewide measures, in one breath

Constitutional amendments (81 through 87) need 55 percent to pass; propositions need a simple majority. From the ballot text:

• Amendment 81: law enforcement must notify Homeland Security when someone charged with a violent crime (or any crime, with a prior felony) cannot be confirmed as lawfully present.
• Amendment 82: a constitutional right to buy and sell natural gas for cooking and heating.
• Amendment 83: a constitutional right to hunt and fish, as the preferred wildlife-management tool.
• Amendment 84: the last four of your Social Security or driver's license number on the outside of your mail ballot envelope, with a cure process.
• Amendment 85: all ballot questions in plain language at an 8th-grade reading level.
• Amendment 86: lock the current congressional redistricting process into the constitution and restrict late changes to final maps.
• Amendment 87: replace the flat income tax with a graduated one, raising $2.7 billion a year; the ballot's own table shows average bills falling below $1 million in income and rising above it.
• Proposition 132: stiffer felony classifications and mandated treatment for fentanyl offenses.
• Proposition 133: life without parole for trafficking a minor, expanded to buyers.
• Proposition 134: school and college sports teams designated male, female or coed, with participation by biological sex.
• Proposition 135: prohibit surgeries on minors to alter sex characteristics, and bar public or insurance funding for them.
• Proposition 136: cap the state income tax rate at 4.4 percent.
• Proposition 137: let the state keep a share of sporting-goods sales tax for water, land and wildfire conservation.
• Proposition NN (the legislature's referral): grow state K-12 spending 2 percent a year for ten years by raising the TABOR cap, no new tax, with an annual audit.

The Blue Book, with pro and con arguments, mails to every active voter at least 30 days out.

Congress: the county is split in two

Most of Douglas County, including Castle Rock, Parker and everything east, votes in the 4th Congressional District: Lauren Boebert (R), Eileen Laubacher (D), a retired Navy rear admiral, and Douglas Mangeris (L). The northwest corner, Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree country, votes in the 6th District: Jason Crow (D), Jason Clark (R), Patty McMahon (L), Meredith Ryan (Unity) and Samir Witta (unaffiliated).

State legislature: one open Senate seat, four House rematches

• Senate District 4 (west and south county), open because Baisley is running for U.S. Senate: Teddy Collins (R) versus Justin Kurth (D).
• Senate District 30: John Carson (R), appointed in 2025, versus Kevin Leung (D).
• Senate District 27, for the slice of the county inside it: Tom Sullivan (D), Danielle Lammon (R), Michele Poague (L).
• House District 39: Brandi Bradley (R) versus Christian Schilder (D).
• House District 43 (Highlands Ranch): Robert "Bob" Marshall (D) versus Nate Marsh (R). Marshall is also the plaintiff suing the county commissioners over the ballot itself; keep reading.
• House District 44: Anthony Hartsook (R), Richard Bowness (D), John H. Sutton (L).
• House District 45: Max Brooks (R), Michael Clarkson (D), Caryn Ann Harlos (L).
• House District 61, for the portion of the county inside it: Scott Shamblin (R), Eliza Hamrick (D), Kevin Gulbranson (L).

Our primary coverage has the June results for each.

County offices: a correction, and six races

In June we told you the county row offices were not up until 2028. The sample ballot says otherwise; we were wrong. Six county offices are on this ballot:

• Commissioner, District 1 (Parker and the north end), the seat Abe Laydon is leaving: Jake Bockenfeld (R), who beat John Diak in the June primary, versus Irene Bonham (D). We profiled all three in the spring.
• Clerk and Recorder: Sheri Davis (R), the incumbent whose name is at the top of your ballot, versus Jim Oehler (D).
• Treasurer: Tim Dietz (R), a former Castle Rock councilman, versus Dan Smith (D).
• Assessor: Toby Damisch (R), the incumbent, versus Kara Garr (D).
• Sheriff Darren M. Weekly (R), Surveyor Darrell E. Roberts (R) and Coroner Raeann Brown (R) are unopposed.

Questions 200, 201 and 1A: the commission-expansion fight, explained

Slow down here: three questions are tangled together and one is being litigated.

Where it came from. A resident petition drive called 3 to 5 Douglas County, organized by Angela Thomas with about 80 volunteer circulators, needed 15,046 valid signatures by August 1. It turned in more than 20,000, and the clerk certified it in mid-August.

Ballot Question 200 is that citizen measure: shall the board grow from three commissioners to five? The wording you will see, though, is not the petition's. On August 28 the commissioners voted unanimously to set a ballot title that opens with a fiscal note: "At an ongoing estimated annual expense of $760,000 to $1,300,000 from County revenue that supports public safety, transportation, and essential county services..." A yes expands the board; a no keeps three.

Ballot Question 201 is the second half of the petition, and it only matters if 200 passes: pick a method. Option one, five commissioners each elected only by voters in their own district. Option two, three district commissioners plus two at-large seats elected countywide.

Ballot Question 1A is the commissioners' own addition, referred unanimously on August 31: if the board grows to five, "shall all registered Douglas County voters continue to elect all County Commissioners?" A yes means countywide voting for every seat, which is how it works today. Read next to 201, where both options include district-only voting, you can see the problem. How the county would reconcile a yes on 201 with a yes on 1A is the question in dispute, and we could not find a public answer from the county.

The fight. Petition representatives protested the fiscal-note title; the board denied it unanimously on September 3. A second protest sought to strike 1A entirely; the board denied that one 2-1 on September 4. On September 8, Rep. Bob Marshall of Highlands Ranch filed suit in Douglas County District Court and asked for a temporary restraining order to keep the board's language off the ballot, arguing state law does not let a county attach a fiscal note to a citizen initiative and that 1A is not a fix but an addition. Commissioner Kevin Van Winkle called the challenge politically motivated and said residents deserve "full financial transparency"; Commissioner Abe Laydon said the board followed its lawyers' advice; Chairman George Teal declined comment. Ballots had to reach the printer September 11. As of publication we have found no ruling, and the sample ballot carries all three questions. We will update this guide if a court changes that.

Ballot Issue 5A: DCSD's $54 million mill levy override

The school board voted 7-0 on August 25 to send this to you. The ballot language: increase district taxes $54 million, starting with 2027 collections, for more competitive teacher and staff pay, school security including resource officers, shorter waitlists for career and technical education, and restoring programs such as elementary instrumental music, with an annual independent audit and a citizens' oversight committee.

What it costs you: about $33.70 a year per $100,000 of home value, or $2.81 a month; roughly $236 a year on a $700,000 house. One structural difference from past overrides: instead of a fixed dollar figure, this one raises "whatever amounts" the mill levy produces up to the district's statutory override cap, so it grows with valuations rather than eroding with inflation.

Where the money goes, per the plan presented at the vote: roughly $21 to $22 million for about a 4 percent raise pool, then specialized student services (about $5.1 million), career and technical education (about $4.2 million), programming including $2 million for elementary music, math and reading support, security, and athletics. Charter schools get a proportional share, reported at $12 to $13 million.

The case for: the district says it pays below neighboring districts and has been plugging a $22 million budget gap with one-time reserves. Voters rejected a $66 million override and a $484 million bond in 2023, so this is the second ask in three years. The case against, as voiced at the board meeting: property taxes are already high, the timing is bad, and enrollment is declining. Even board secretary Kyrzia Parker said the increase "might break some people" before voting yes. That is the honest frame for 5A: a real pay gap versus a real affordability squeeze, and no way to vote for both.

Municipal: Castle Rock, Parker, Castle Pines, Larkspur

Castle Rock elects a mayor at large and two district council seats, all four-year terms. Mayor: Laura Cavey, Amelia Thomas, Stu Butler. District 3 (eastern Meadows, Castle Highlands, Red Hawk, the Wolfensberger corridor): Chris Phelen, Tiffany Coyle, Matt Smith. District 5 (southeast Castle Rock): Mitchell Sawin, Patrick Reilly. Every town voter gets the mayor's race; only District 3 and 5 residents get theirs.

Parker fills three council seats at once, vote for three of five: Kristin Williams, Erik Frandsen, Johnnie Turnidge, Brandi Wilks, Anne Barrington. Four-year terms. The town's page says ballots go out October 12; the county says October 2, so do not panic if a neighbor's arrives first.

Castle Pines has two charter questions, 300 and 301, requiring a citywide vote before the city annexes any property over 20 acres under common ownership (serial annexations counted together), and sending any such annexation completed within 180 days of passage back to voters.

Larkspur Fire Protection District asks for a 3.97-mill increase (Issue 6A, about $925,000 a year for staffing and fleet) and $4.5 million in debt (Issue 6B) for apparatus and a future station.

Lone Tree and Highlands Ranch have nothing local on this ballot: Lone Tree voted in May, the metro district elects in May, and HRCA runs its own delegate elections. One oddity: Ballot Issue 7A, the 0.333 percent sales tax and $580 million in debt for Front Range Passenger Rail, appears only inside the rail district, which a law signed in May shrank to the route cities plus, in Douglas County, the Sterling Ranch metro district, site of a planned station. Sterling Ranch votes on a train; nobody else in the county does.

Judges. You will also be asked to retain Supreme Court Justice William W. Hood III, six Court of Appeals judges, 23rd Judicial District judges Baum, Klingensmith, Slade and Warhola, and County Court judges Bowling and Fields. The Blue Book carries the performance commission's recommendation on each.

The short version

Ballots arrive the first week of October. The state has 14 questions, the county has three that may still change shape in court, and the school district wants $54 million a year. For your specific ballot, start with the county's composite sample ballot and our June primer. We will be counting on election night.