AURORA | A ballot question asking voters to raise sales taxes to build a Front Range passenger rail line was wrongly included on ballots sent to hundreds of thousands of area voters not eligible to vote on the measure after the rail district miscommunicated district boundary details, state election officials and county clerks said Wednesday.
The issue affects some voters in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Weld counties, according to a joint update from the Colorado Department of State and the Colorado County Clerks Association.
About 800,000 voters received ballots that include Ballot Issue 7A even though they are not eligible to vote on the issue, backing a train lined dubbed “CoCo” earlier this year, according officials from the Front Range Passenger Rail District.
“The most important thing we want all voters to be assured of is that their vote will be counted in a fair, transparent fashion,” Arapahoe County Clerk Joan Lopez said in a statement. “They do not need to take any steps other than voting their ballot as they normally would.”
Instead, county clerks will determine a way to identify the mistaken ballots and ensure Question 7A isn’t tallied in the vote count, Lopez said.
Of the approximate 800,000 mistaken ballots, about 262,000 were wrongly sent to Arapahoe County residents, officials said.
“ We are in close communication with our partnering clerks’ offices in the other affected counties, as well as the Secretary of State’s Office to determine how we will resolve this issue,” Lopez said. “We will follow the uniform guidance provided by the Secretary of State’s Office once they describe a path forward.”
Details from Adams County weren’t immediately available.
The quagmire prompted calls to cancel the 7A election from critics of the project.
“This is gross incompetence brought to the voters by the same interests who mismanaged every rail tax since the 1970s,” said Jon Caldara, head of the Affordable Colorado Issue Committee and President of the Independence Institute. “If they can’t get the district boundaries right for their inaugural election, how can they get trains to run on time? Are they going to tax more voters by accident, too?”
The issue comes months after lawmakers changed the District’s boundaries during the 2026 legislative session, removing portions of Weld and Douglas counties from the District.
“The District waged an effort during the 2026 legislative session to strategically redraw its boundaries, carving portions of Weld and Douglas counties out of the voting lines,” Caldara said. “It seems that gimmick has come back to bite CoCo in the caboose.”
Only voters who are eligible to vote on Ballot Issue 7A will have their votes on the measure counted, the agencies said. Ballot processing is slated to begin Oct. 19.
The proposal, if approved, would impose a 0.333% sales tax on communities included in the district.
The Front Range Passenger Rail District, which spans 13 counties from the north end of the state to the south, said the boundaries were changed this spring under a law signed by Gov. Jared Polis. The law tied the district’s boundaries to the daily passenger rail route being developed and changed procedures for anticipated district elections, according to an explanation provided to the Secretary of State by officials from the Front Range Passenger Rail District.
District officials said the law was enacted on a “compressed timeline” and that, because of the district’s unique status under state law, the new boundaries were not communicated through the usual channels used by county clerks.
“We should have communicated earlier in this process with all the county clerks in the District to ensure you had the information you needed to successfully administer this election,” General Manager Sal Pace and the district’s board of directors said in a letter to county clerks. “We regret the confusion that has followed.”
The district asked the Secretary of State’s Office to provide guidance to counties so voters can use the ballots they received and have eligible votes counted.
After ballots are submitted, election officials will use procedures recognizing the district’s updated boundaries to determine which Ballot Issue 7A votes are eligible to be counted, according to the district. Votes on the measure from voters who are not eligible will not be included in the final tally, while the rest of those voters’ ballots will be counted, according to county and state election officials.
The Secretary of State’s Office is working with county clerks on guidance for administering the measure, the Department of State and County Clerks Association said. A copy of the guidance will be provided to county officials.
The district urged counties to encourage voters to return their ballots just as they received them.