2026 Niwot Incorporation Election
A neutral voter-information page: what is on the ballot, who may vote and where the official resources are. It does not argue for or against incorporation, and the certified ballot text controls wherever this summary differs from it.
Before you vote
The Commission’s FAQ: the boundary is the one described in the petition’s Exhibits A and B. An address-lookup tool run by a campaign is not official material.
Commission FAQRegister, update an address, and find ballot drop-off and voting locations.
Boulder County Elections- Election date
- November 3, 2026
- A coordinated mail-ballot election held with other Boulder County contests.
- Who may vote
- Registered electors
- Those residing within the proposed boundary.
- Ballot content and procedure
- Niwot Election Commission
- Appointed by the Boulder County District Court. The Boulder County Clerk and Recorder conducts the coordinated election itself.
- Last verified
- September 10, 2026
- Checked against official sources on this date. The official text controls.
What incorporation would decide
Incorporation would create a town: a municipal government for the area inside the boundary described in the petition, with its own elected officials and the powers Colorado law gives a municipality. That is why the same ballot carries the taxes and the debt that would fund it. Niwot is unincorporated today, so those functions sit with Boulder County and the special districts.
The proposed boundary is not the same as the Niwot census designated place. The 4,306 people counted there in 2020 are not the electorate for this vote, and not necessarily the population of the proposed town. The petition’s Exhibits A and B describe the boundary; the Commission’s FAQ explains how to check an address against them.
The official ballot language controls. Wording on this page is a plain-language summary. Where it differs from the certified ballot text published by the Niwot Election Commission, the Commission’s text is authoritative.
Three questions
Voters inside the proposed boundary decide three separate matters. They are counted separately, but the second and third take effect only if the first is approved.
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Question 1
Whether Niwot should incorporate as a municipality
Whether the territory described in the petition should be organized as a Colorado municipality. Approval would begin the creation of a town government; rejection would leave the area unincorporated and administered by Boulder County, and none of the other measures would take effect.
Official text -
Question 2
Whether to form a nine-member home rule charter commission
Whether a commission of nine members should be formed to draft a proposed home rule charter for the new municipality. The commission drafts a charter; it does not adopt one. It is formed only if incorporation is approved.
Official text -
Question 3
Which nine charter commission candidates should be elected
Which of the 28 candidates on the ballot would serve on that charter commission: voters may select up to nine. The Commission’s summary ties this question to the two before it — the nine elected take office only if incorporation (Question 1) and the charter commission (Question 2) are both approved.
Official text
Five fiscal issues
Each is a separate authorization, listed here as filed and without argument about whether it is advisable. All of them apply only if a municipality is created. Where the ballot text states an estimated first-full-year revenue, the figure is given.
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Issue 1
A 2.5% sales and use tax beginning January 1, 2028
Authorization to levy a municipal sales and use tax at 2.5%, with collection beginning January 1, 2028. The ballot text exempts food for domestic consumption and states an estimated $2.8 million in revenue in the first full fiscal year.
Official text -
Issue 2
A four-mill property tax
Authorization to levy a property tax of four mills within the municipal boundary. The ballot text states an estimated $900,000 in revenue in the first full fiscal year.
Official text -
Issue 3
An additional 3% sales tax on retail marijuana, beginning January 1, 2028
Authorization for an additional special sales tax of 3% on retail marijuana sales, with collection beginning January 1, 2028. It applies only if retail marijuana businesses operate within the municipality. The ballot text states an estimated $60,000 in revenue in the first full fiscal year.
Official text -
Issue 4
Authorization to retain and spend collected revenue from 2027
Authorization for the municipality to keep and spend all the revenue it collects from 2027 onward, as a voter-approved revenue change under the revenue and spending limits in Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution (the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights), rather than refunding amounts above those limits.
Official text -
Issue 5
Authorization for up to $15 million in debt for transportation infrastructure
Authorization to incur up to $15 million in debt for transportation infrastructure, with a maximum total repayment cost of up to $28 million. The petition proposes repaying it from the sales and use tax in Issue 1, so this authorization depends on that tax being approved.
Official text
What happens next
No charter is being approved on November 3. If incorporation passes, a separate charter vote follows later.
- If incorporation is rejected, no municipality is created, no charter commission is formed, and the fiscal authorizations have nothing to apply to. The process ends.
- If incorporation is approved, the court enters an order of incorporation, and the fiscal measures that also passed take effect on the dates in the ballot text.
- If the charter commission question is also approved, the nine elected commissioners draft a proposed home rule charter. The commission exists only alongside incorporation.
- The proposed charter returns to voters at a later election.
- No charter is being approved in the November 3, 2026 election.
Go to the source
Two bodies, two roles. The Niwot Election Commission, appointed by the Boulder County District Court, is responsible for the ballot content and the procedure for this question. The Boulder County Clerk and Recorder conducts the coordinated election it appears in: registration, ballots, drop-off and results. This guide is not an election authority.
The Election Commission has stated that the printer’s proof was scheduled for review on September 11, 2026. Ballot language reproduced anywhere outside the Commission’s own pages should be re-checked against the official ballot page after that review before being treated as final. This page will carry a dated note when it is.
Three organizations campaign on this question and publish their own analysis. Their material is advocacy, not official election information, and is labeled as such wherever it appears here.
Changes to this page
Anything on this page that cannot be supported by a filed document or an official publication is removed rather than softened. Every change to a published fact is listed here with its date.
Dated changes (2)
- September 10, 2026
- The Commission’s own labels (Question 1 to 3, Issue 1 to 5) now appear beside each summary. The first three fiscal issues carry the first-full-year revenue estimates the ballot text states ($2.8 million, $900,000 and $60,000). Question 3 says voters may select up to nine of 28 candidates, and its dependency on Questions 1 and 2 follows the Commission’s summary. The page now distinguishes the Commission’s role (ballot content and procedure) from the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder’s (conducting the coordinated election). All of it rests on the launch audit’s September 10 reading of the Commission’s ballot page and is to be re-checked after the September 11 proof review.
- September 9, 2026
- Fiscal-issue summaries expanded with qualifications from the ballot text: the sales and use tax exempts food for domestic consumption; the marijuana tax is an additional tax from January 1, 2028 that applies only if retail marijuana businesses operate; the revenue-retention measure concerns the constitutional (TABOR) revenue and spending limits from 2027; the transportation debt would be repaid from the proposed sales and use tax. The dependency of the charter commission on incorporation is now stated. Voting tasks were moved to the top of the page and the boundary link now points at the Commission’s FAQ, which names the petition’s Exhibits A and B as the governing description.