Last week, text messages went out to a plethora of Colorado Springs voters stating the El Paso County Democratic Party was urging them to vote no on Ballot Question 300, which would allow recreational cannabis sales in the city.
“BREAKING: The El Paso County Democratic Party urges you to VOTE NO on Colorado Springs Question 300,” the text message read. Screenshots of what was sent out can be viewed below.
300 would allow businesses with existing medical marijuana licenses to sell recreational cannabis in Colorado Springs. Measure 2D on the ballot would outright ban recreational marijuana in the city.
The text message raised alarm for many voters who received it, believing it was counterintuitive compared to how Democrats typically vote.
“I immediately felt that that was incongruent with what I've heard from the Democratic Party,” said one Colorado Springs Democrat who received the text and did not wish to be identified. “After getting on their website, I confirmed my suspicion that that was incorrect and that this proved to be false.”
It’s unclear how many received the text message, but based on those speaking out, it appears to have been targeted to at least registered Democrats, who number nearly 80,000 in El Paso County.
“I know the voter that I spoke to that got this text message thought it was from the Democratic Party, when in fact, it was from our opposition campaign,” said Meghan Graf, a spokesperson with Citizens for Responsible Marijuana Regulation, which is the group backing 300.
"I would hope that our opposition would go ahead and clear this up on the record. But you know, another, in my view, slimy misleading tactic designed intentionally to mislead voters," said Graf.
The El Paso County Democrats conceded the confusion initially began due to a mistake on their part.
At some point on Friday, Oct. 11, the Democrats posted on their social media and website that they were recommending a “No” vote on 300, with a detailed explanation on how “it would lock the retail marijuana industry into a tightly controlled, stagnant state.”
Rob Rogers, the first vice chair with the El Paso County Democrats, stressed they are a volunteer organization and in an email sent outafter the fact, said the volunteers “inadvertently shared incorrect language in a previous communication.”
Rogers said they often write up positions on either side of an issue to prepare in advance for various situations because “we don’t always know how votes are going to go.” In this instance, he said, a technical problem caused the wrong position to be posted.
“It was corrected within less than 24 hours and it seems to be during that time period, this conservative PAC, they saw an opportunity to take advantage of that, and to send out some misleading information that represented itself as us,” said Rogers in a KOAA interview.
“Regardless of the message that we put out, regardless of whether or not we supported this, it's unethical at best, to be sending out that type of messaging,” Rogers added.
But the group behind the messages, the Colorado Springs Safe Neighborhood Coalition, said they did nothing wrong and simply quoted what the Democrats published online, whether it was in error or not.
Daniel Cole, who heads up the opposition campaign to 300 through the Coalition, said they won’t be issuing a correction because, in his mind, they don’t “have a duty” to do so.
“A, of course, no, we weren't trying to impersonate anybody,” said Cole in an interview from his downtown office.
"And B, I think it's a ridiculous claim that we were on the part of the Democratic Party. I think they know better. I think that they made a mistake. They're a little embarrassed about it. Understandably, we all make mistakes. But rather than simply acknowledging it, they're trying to redirect attention onto somebody else, when all that we were doing was sincerely and accurately relaying what they had said.”
Cole said that the Democrats posted a detailed rationale for why people should vote against 300 and he had no way of knowing they would change their position and reverse course after the fact.
The Colorado Springs City Clerk’s office said the city code related to municipal elections requires the disclosure of the name of the committee or candidate making the expenditure for publishing a communication, such as a text. However, the disclosure requirement does not contain regulations around the content of that speech.
Even if the texts were deliberately misleading voters or seeking to misrepresent the Democratic party, the city response suggests there would be no campaign violation due to First Amendment speech rights.
The texts in question were labeled as “Paid for by Colorado Springs Safe Neighborhood Coalition.”
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said it does not have jurisdiction to enforce any criminal provisions of the Elections Code and instead suggested the 4th Judicial District or Colorado Attorney General’s office would handle such cases.
Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTVon X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.
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