Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and backers of Ballot Issue 2R, a sales tax increase aimed at fueling affordable housing investments and programs, conceded the measure’s narrow defeat early Saturday morning.
While it made up ground in later returns after Tuesday’s election, the measure was rejected on 51% of city ballots counted so far, according to the latest results released by the Denver Elections Division on Friday evening.
That’s a slight improvement over preliminary results released Tuesday, when the measure had a rejection rate of 52.2%. The shift since then is a demonstration that voters who turned out on Election Day — casting ballots more likely to be processed on subsequent days — were more supportive of the tax measure.
But with an estimated 30,000 ballots left to be counted, 2R still trailed by 6,145 votes. The mayor, in a statement at 5:59 a.m. Saturday, acknowledged that the deficit was too steep to overcome.
“We are grateful to the council members, housing advocates and community leaders who took on the challenge of addressing our affordability crisis head-on. We knew this would be a difficult struggle, but thanks to their courage, 2R fell short by the narrowest of margins and Denverites continue to speak loudly about the need to confront rising housing costs across Denver.” Johnston said in that statement.
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