{"id":6973,"date":"0001-12-03T00:38:00","date_gmt":"0001-12-03T00:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2218486"},"modified":"0001-12-03T00:38:00","modified_gmt":"0001-12-03T00:38:00","slug":"lead-grows-more-for-denvers-social-marijuana-use-measure-but-47000-ballots-still-not-counted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/lead-grows-more-for-denvers-social-marijuana-use-measure-but-47000-ballots-still-not-counted\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead grows more for Denver\u2019s social marijuana use measure, but 47,000 ballots still not counted"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/lead-grows-more-for-denvers-social-marijuana-use-measure-but-47000-ballots-still-not-counted\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><figure id=\"attachment_2188355\" class=\"wp-caption alignright size-article_inline_half\" readability=\"51.5\"><img class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/lead-grows-more-for-denvers-social-marijuana-use-measure-but-47000-ballots-still-not-counted\" alt=\"Marijuana activist Emmett Reistroffer and cannabis consultant Kayvan Khalatbari deliver signatures for a public cannabis use ballot initiative to the Denver election officials on Aug. 12. Initiative 300 would allow businesses in Denver to apply for permits to let customers bring and consume their own marijuana.\" width=\"4928\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\" readability=\"28\">\n<p>Vincent Chandler, Denver Post file<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana activist Emmett Reistroffer and cannabis consultant Kayvan Khalatbari deliver signatures for a public cannabis use ballot initiative to the Denver election officials on Aug. 12. Initiative 300 would allow businesses in Denver to apply for permits to let customers bring and consume their own marijuana.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Too many ballots remain\u00a0uncounted to declare victory for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/11\/08\/initiative-300-denver-social-cannabis-use\/\">Denver\u2019s social marijuana use ballot measure<\/a>, but its lead has continued to widen in updated results.<\/p>\n<p>As of 7:30 p.m. Friday, 52.7 percent of voters have supported passage of Initiative 300, giving it a lead of 14,443 votes, or\u00a05.3\u00a0percentage points.\u00a0That compares with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/11\/08\/initiative-300-denvers-social-marijuana-use-measure-too-close-to-call-in-early-returns\/\">a narrower 1.3 percentage-point lead<\/a>\u00a0the measure had a few\u00a0hours after polls closed Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>But the current\u00a0margin was dwarfed by roughly 47,000 ballots that still remained uncounted, according to figures released by the Denver Elections Division. That was down from 90,000 remaining Thursday evening.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\"\/>\n<p>It <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/11\/09\/denver-counting-ballots-monday-voting-crush\/\">has been dealing with a crush of ballots<\/a> dropped off or voted in person the final two days of Tuesday\u2019s election, which has drawn out counting. Election workers were\u00a0scanning more ballots Friday, spokesman Alton Dillard said, but the main count likely won\u2019t be done until Monday at the earliest.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves Initiative 300\u2019s outcome in limbo for a few more days \u2014 but its lead has been growing with each results update, giving backers reason for optimism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great to see the percentage points tick up as the votes come in. We are pulling away in vote count, \u2026 and it appears to be a long haul for the \u2018No\u2019 camp to come back at this point,\u201d lead organizer Kayvan Khalatbari, co-owner of\u00a0Denver Relief Consulting, said Friday. \u201cBut we will wait for the Denver Elections Division to get through this holiday and this count to make it official before we celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The organizer of an opposition group called Protect Denver\u2019s Atmosphere\u00a0noted that voters were proving less enthusiastic about the measure than for 2012\u2019s Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana sales and use in Colorado. That constitutional initiative received support from 66 percent\u00a0of Denver voters.<\/p>\n<p>But opponents also were waiting for the counting to finish.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUntil then, I believe that we got out the message that the people who supported 64 (have) lost some of those supporters, because this\u00a0is fundamentally different from what the word and the spirit of Amendment 64 was,\u201d said Rachel O\u2019Bryan, the group\u2019s campaign manager. \u201cThis is public use,\u201d and she sees Denver\u2019s measure potentially conflicting with the state amendment \u2014 a point on\u00a0which Initiative 300\u2019s backers disagree.<\/p>\n<p>The ballot measure would create a four-year pilot program allowing regular businesses, such as bars,\u00a0cafes or even yoga studios, to seek permits for over-age-21 consumption areas accommodating customers who bring their own marijuana products. Those areas could be indoors (allowing vaping and edibles, but not smoking) or outdoors (allowing smoking).<\/p>\n<p>First, applicants for annual or temporary permits would need backing from a single local neighborhood group, such as a city-registered neighborhood organization or business improvement district. That would allow the\u00a0outside group to set operating conditions in exchange for their support.<\/p>\n<p><b>Updated Nov. 11, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.: <\/b><i>Results in this story have been updated with results from Denver Election Division.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Too many ballots remain uncounted to declare victory for Denver&#8217;s social marijuana use ballot measure, but its lead has continued to widen in updated results. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6847,784,6839,6861,6813,77,5667,9,441,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6850,3357,6840,6862,6818,2655,5673,3015],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}