Jeffco 5A flips to passing by 327 votes and lands inside recount range

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice

For more than a week, Jeffco Public Schools’ $73 million tax increase was losing.

District leaders had already said what that would mean. On the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 4, the day after the election, interim Superintendent Rob Stein and Board of Education President Michelle Applegate put out a statement on the results, according to Chalkbeat Colorado.

“Additional budget reductions will be necessary,” they said.

On Friday, Ballot Issue 5A moved ahead. Yes now leads 151,909 to 151,582 in Secretary of State results, a margin of 327 votes.

If it holds when the count is certified, that is close enough to require a recount under state law. Measured as a share of the vote, 5A is the closest contest on Colorado’s November ballot at any level, and the only one inside the recount margin.

Five votes, frozen for six days

By the day after the election, No led by more than 1,600 votes.

The gap closed fast. By the evening of Thursday, Nov. 5, No was ahead by three votes. A day later it was five, 150,897 to 150,892.

Then the reported count stopped moving.

The measure sat at No by five for 10 straight postings from Nov. 6 to Nov. 12. Not one vote changed in either column.

Jefferson County’s total ballots cast held at 313,425 for almost eight days.

The deadline for voters to fix signature and ID problems on their ballots, and for military and overseas ballots to arrive, was Thursday, Nov. 12.

The Secretary of State’s 12:33 p.m. posting Friday carried Jefferson County’s first new ballots since Nov. 5. There were 1,997 of them.

Across the district, 5A gained 1,017 Yes votes and 685 No votes in that posting. Not every ballot carried a vote on 5A.

That was a 332-vote swing in one posting. It flipped the result.

Counting is now done. All 64 counties have finished, according to the Secretary of State’s results, and 5A has not moved since the flip. County canvass boards must finish reviewing the count by Nov. 25.

Losing in Jefferson County, passing in Broomfield

Jeffco Public Schools also serves part of Broomfield. It is one of six school districts listed on the City and County of Broomfield’s schools page. That part of the district is where 5A is passing.

Inside Jefferson County, the measure is still losing. No leads there 150,223 to 150,179, a 44-vote gap.

Broomfield went the other way. Yes leads there 1,730 to 1,359, a margin of 371 votes.

Broomfield cast 3,089 votes on 5A. That is about 1% of the district’s total.

Broomfield’s margin covers the whole district lead. Its 371 minus Jefferson County’s 44 is 327.

The recount

Colorado law requires a recount when the gap between the top two totals is half of 1% of the leading side’s total or less. For 5A, that is about 760 votes. The current margin is less than half that.

5A is a school district measure in an election run by the county. That means the recount is ordered by the Jefferson County clerk and recorder, under state law, not by the Secretary of State.

It can’t be ordered until the county canvass board certifies the original count.

Any recount must be finished within 31 days of the election. That puts the deadline at Dec. 4.

The same law lets a district that referred a measure waive the automatic recount in writing within 23 days of the election. That option applies only if the measure fails.

While 5A trailed by five votes, it was on the table. With 5A passing on current returns, it isn’t, unless the canvass reverses the result.

The results are unofficial until certification.

What 5A pays for

5A would raise $73 million, starting with property taxes collected in 2027.

According to Chalkbeat, most of it would fund “already-promised and future pay increases for teachers, principals, and school support staff.” It would also pay for more career and technical education classes.

The board put 5A on the ballot with a companion measure, 5B. 5B would raise $60 million for capital construction, technology and maintenance.

5B is failing by 7,302 votes.

The district puts the cost at about $3.50 a month for every $100,000 of a home’s actual value. On a $650,000 home, which the district gives as Jefferson County’s median, that comes to about $273 a year. Chalkbeat reported the same $273 figureas the cost of 5A and 5B together.

A promise voters have heard before

5A’s ballot language says the spending will be “reviewed by a board-appointed citizens’ committee for accountability.”

Jeffco voters were told something similar in 2018. When they approved a $33 million override that year, the district saidthe spending would be “reviewed by the citizen’s financial oversight advisory committee.”

The district says that committee was never created. A district spokesperson told the Golden Transcript in February that “with the pandemic and staff turnover, the district lost track of this intended focus area” for its Financial Oversight Committee.

Jeffco now lists a Mill Levy Override Committee to review the 2018 money and any future overrides. The earliest meeting minutes it posts are dated April 1, 2026.

That is more than seven years after voters approved the 2018 tax.

Where that leaves the district

Jeffco is Colorado’s second-largest school district, with about 74,000 students, according to Chalkbeat.

When the board put both measures on the ballot in August, Applegate warned what failure would mean.

“Everything is on the table, and that looks like shortened workforce, shortened work days, reduction of benefits, things that will massively impact our community,” she told Denver7.

That Nov. 4 statement came while 5A was losing.

If the count holds through certification and the recount, Jeffco gets its $73 million for raises and career programs. If 5B’s result holds too, it won’t have the $60 million it sought for buildings, technology and maintenance.