The Denver Post has reported new poll results for Colorado.
The poll was an online survey of 800 registered voters conducted between Oct. 12 and 17, that included questions asking voters’ view of Proposition 112 and Proposition 74. The poll was commissioned by the University of Colorado and conducted by YouGov.
The survey results reported by the Post include:
- 52% of voters surveyed said they support Proposition 112, which requires a minimum 2,500 foot oil and gas setback.
- 63% of voters said they would vote yes on Amendment 74, which would require state and local governments to compensate property owners when regulations reduce their property value.
- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis has a 12-point lead over Republican Walker Stapleton, 54% to 42%.
Polis recently stated in a televised debate that he is not in favor of signing into law any new bill that rolls back changes put forward by citizens who voted in Proposition 112, should the state legislature bring forward a bill intended to delay or reverse it.
“I don’t think anything is in the bag,” Anand Sokhey, one of the poll’s authors and a CU associate professor of political science, told the Post. “There’s still time for those numbers to move around, especially with independent voters,” the report said.
The Post reports that “YouGov has a B rating from FiveThirtyEight, a news organization that specializes in covering polls. YouGov accurately predicts outcomes 88 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.” The poll’s margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.
Photo: Town of Erie, Colorado’s skate park and soccer fields with nearby drilling rig. Photo: Oil & Gas 360.
Backers of Proposition 112 want a ‘yes’ vote for a 2,500-foot setback for all new oil and gas development (including workovers) on non-federal land in Colorado. Supporters of Proposition 74 seek an amendment to the Colorado Constitution that requires state or local government to pay property owners fair value that is lost as a result of laws or regulations state or local governments impose.
If both measures pass on the 2018 ballot, estimates put lost mineral value in the billions of dollars as a result of 112 prohibiting new drilling on more than 85% of the private- and state-owned surface land in Colorado, according to a study by the COGCC. Ballots are in the mail to voters now.
Colorado ballot measure Proposition 112 as it appears on the Weld County ballot.
Oct. 22 is the first day that Colorado’s 64 counties opened Voter Service and Polling Centers where residents can vote in person, drop off a ballot and register to vote.
Colorado has 3.2 million active voters, most of whom vote by mail. Of the 2.8 million voters who participated in the 2016 general election, 93% either mailed in their ballot, dropped it off at a 24-hour ballot box or dropped it off at voting center. Seven percent voted in person, according to the Colorado Secretary of State.
Final votes will be counted Nov. 6.
