CITY VOTERS HELD SWAY IN MARIJUANA BAN VOTE

Voters who live within Colorado Springs city limits made the
difference in the Nov. 2 election when it came to staving off a ban on
medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated El Paso County.
Voters outside city limits wanted to put a ban in place, according to
a Gazette analysis of precinct-by-precinct results released last week.

While ballot measure 1A failed by a razor-thin margin county-wide, the
proposed ban lost by a much higher rate in city limits. In the city,
61 percent of precincts voted against the ban.

"This is exactly what we were hoping for," said Tanya Garduno,
director of the Colorado Springs Medical Cannabis Council. "The people
in the city are the ones who primarily are living with the
dispensaries now. A lot of people probably thought 'hey these
businesses aren't hurting anyone.'"

She hopes a group currently collecting signatures to put a city-wide
dispensary ban on the April city ballot will take heed of the November
results.

"We would hope that the people behind the initiative would take a look
at these numbers and say 'hey, the people have spoken.'"

Steve Wind, who is leading the group collecting the signatures, said
he will do no such thing.

"The people haven't spoken yet on my petition," he said. "Our original
goal for the April election still stands."

A look at vote totals in the city show that 1A was a close vote. In
all, 51 percent of voters in city precincts voted against the ban. The
majority of voters who wanted the ban in the city live in the northern
part of the city - traditionally the most conservative part of the
city - while those living in the more liberal areas of downtown and
the west side rejected it.

"I think the chances of a ban (in the city) are as good as the chances
of it not passing," Wind said. "It's a toss up."

He said his group is continuing to collect signatures for the April
ballot. He would not divulge how many signatures the group has collected.

OTHER EL PASO COUNTY ELECTION RESULTS

U.S. SENATE

In the race for Democratic U.S. Senator Michael Bennet's seat,
Republican Ken Buck won 325 of the county's precincts, or 80 percent.
In vote totals, Buck had 60 percent of the vote. Bennet won 77 of the
county's precincts, or 19 percent. For total votes, he had 34 percent
of the vote. There were two other candidates in the race.

COLORADO GOVERNOR

For Colorado governor, third-party candidate Tom Tancredo was the
favorite in El Paso County. Tancredo won 234 precincts, or 58 percent.
In total votes, he had 43 percent.

Democrat John Hickenlooper came in second in the county, winning 167
precincts, or 41 percent. He had 37 percent of the total vote.
Republican Dan Maes had 18 percent of the total vote in the race, and
he won two precincts.

EL PASO COUNTY COMMISSIONER TERM LIMITS

Voters overwhelmingly voted to increase term limits for El Paso County
commissioners.

In all, 398 precincts, or 98.5 percent of all precincts, voted to
increase term limits. The measure had 63 percent of total votes. The
measure failed in six precincts.