Voters in the city and county of Denver, Colorado, will decide on eight local ballot measures on Nov. 4, 2025. Five are bond measures, two are referred questions, and one is a citizen-initiated veto referendum.
Bond Measures
The bond measures were placed on the ballot by the Denver City Council. The five measures, if approved, would allow for funding of:
- a new family health center and children’s advocacy center;
- improvements to the city’s parks and recreation facilities;
- construction to improve the city’s transportation and mobility infrastructure;
- improvements to art, cultural, library, and miscellaneous city facilities; and
- repairs and improvements to housing designed to reduce rent and increase affordability.
Charter Amendments
The two referred measures would amend the city and county charter. The first would designate the two at-large positions in the Denver City Council as Seat A and Seat B. Currently, the two city council at-large positions are on the ballot together, and the seats are awarded to the two candidates that receive the greatest and second-greatest number of votes. Under the measure, the seats would be listed separately, and voters would elect one candidate to Seat A and one candidate to Seat B.
The second referred measure would make changes to the official names of the city departments and would add the Manager of Licensing and Consumer Protection to the mayor’s cabinet.
Veto Referendum
The veto referendum targets Ordinance 24-1765, passed by the Denver City Council in an 11-1 vote on Dec. 16, 2024, and signed by Mayor Mike Johnson on Dec. 18. The ordinance would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products.
In early 2025, sponsors of the veto referendum launched a campaign to repeal the ban. On March 17, they submitted more than 17,000 signatures in support of repealing the ban. The city clerk’s office verified about 11,000 as valid, qualifying the referendum for the ballot.
The ballot question will ask voters whether the ordinance should be retained. A “Yes” vote would keep the flavored tobacco ban, while a “No” vote would repeal it.
Yes for Denver Kids is leading the campaign for upholding the ban. The committee is a coalition of organizations, including the Colorado Cancer Coalition, the Colorado Medical Society, Kaiser Permanente, and NAACP Denver.
A statement on the Yes for Denver Kids website states, “Flavored tobacco poses a serious threat to the health of Denver’s kids. Vaping devices can deliver massive doses of addictive nicotine and toxic chemicals like formaldehyde and lead. Over 40% of high-school e-cigarette users are frequent or daily users. This means they aren’t just experimenting with flavored tobacco products. They’re addicted. Many don’t even realize that nicotine harms brain development, attention, impulse control and mood. The U.S. Surgeon General has concluded that youth use of nicotine in any form, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe.”
Jodi Radke of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, which supports upholding the ban, stated, “The tobacco industry knows that 95% of adults who use tobacco started before the age of 21, and most initiate use around the age of 12. They know that the leading reason that kids experiment with tobacco is because the product is flavored. Removing the products from the market that are primarily used by kids threatens their bottom line and their ability to create lifelong users by addicting them early. Their pipeline for profit is our kids.”
Citizen Power is leading the campaign to overturn the ban. Tobacco companies Philip Morris USA Inc. and Altria have contributed financing to the campaign. The Rocky Mountain Smoke-Free Alliance, which advocates for vaping businesses in Colorado, has also financially supported the campaign to overturn the ban.
A statement on Citizen Power’s website states, “We all agree tobacco and vape products should be illegal for anyone under age 21. But Referendum 310 goes too far. It would ban vape products for consenting adults and would have many negative consequences.” The website states that such negative consequences include closing small businesses, a loss of $13 million in annual revenue, and a threat to the freedom of choice for adults to consume the tobacco products they prefer.
Travis Parman, a Philip Morris International spokesperson, said in support of overturning the ban, “Flavors can be supportive in helping consumers make the transition to better alternatives.”
The Denver City Council has stated it will not enforce the ban on flavored tobacco products before the Nov. 4 election.
The 2025 Denver ballot has about the same number of measures as the city’s annual average. From 2015 to 2024, Denver averaged around eight ballot measures each year. During that period, 2024 had the most measures with 12, while 2023 had the fewest with four.
Additional reading: