Final voting results for the November 2010 Denver election had some surprises. Initiative 300, which proposed an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission, received 31,108 votes, or 17.66%. That is over 10% more than the 27,837 votes that City Councilman Doug Linkhart received in 2003 for his first term for city council at-large. The final results were posted weeks after the election.
Linkhart is now in his second city council term. He is also running for Mayor of Denver. His pre-election newsletter referred to Initiative 300 as a "non-issue". This is despite the potential benefits it had for airport security, public safety, and economic development. In fact, Linkhart urged a "no" vote on the measure. In doing so, he broke ranks with the Denver Democratic Party, which was neutral on Initiative 300. A possible reason for his opposition is explained below:
- Voting percentages for Initiative 300 were higher in the mostly African American, Asian, and Latino precincts compared to the mostly Caucasian precincts. Several precincts had over 30% and thirty precincts had over 25% voting for Initiative 300.
- About 14% of early voters supported Initiative 300 compared to about 24% of voters who voted on, or near, Election Day. More accurate news coverage occurred only later in the campaign. And the eight page voter education 'newspaper' also made it to voters only very close to Election Day. As voters learned more about Initiative 300, they were more inclined to support it.
It was discovered only after the election that voting on the issue was heavily affected by two unfair obstacles. Firstly, the Democrats’ "No on Numbers" campaign spent millions to oppose numbered statewide ballot measures. As a result, amendments 60, 61, and 62, got only 16.97%, 18.32%, and 17.07% respectively among Denver voters. However, the Democratic Party was neutral on Initiative 300 but they did not make that clear to voters. So many registered Democrats mistakenly thought the Democratic Party wanted them to vote "no" and that is what they did.
The other major obstacle was from Denver's Budget Management Director. He issued a grossly wrong estimate about potential costs to the city from the activities of the proposed Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission. To his credit, the budget director was correct in stating that the activities of the commission would not cost the city any money. After all, that was a legally binding provision of the proposed ordinance. But he was clearly wrong in providing opponents of Initiative 300 an incorrect estimate of potentially reimbursable costs to the city. His estimate was ten times higher than it should have been.
Despite these obstacles, Initiative 300 did comparatively well. It received over four times the percentage of votes that Republican candidate Dan Maes received from Denver voters in his 2010 race to become Governor of Colorado. It also had nearly as much as the 20.32% of votes that former Congressman Tom Tancredo received from Denver voters in his 2010 race for Governor.
The low percentage for Initiative 300 reflects the influence of Denver Democrats and a city official much more than it reflects actual public support for issue. Outside of Denver, the percentage of support for Republican candidates and numbered statewide initiatives was far higher.
Linkhart’s strategy in opposing Initiative 300
Some people think that Linkhart wanted to distance himself from the Latino, African American, and Asian voters as a political strategy. Why? One possible reason is that he could then align himself more with white voters who are still the majority in Denver. To have any chance of even getting into the runoff election, Linkhart would have to capture a large share of the Caucasian vote.
Linkhart knew that Latino voters will primarily vote for James Mejia, and African American voters will support City Councilman Michael Hancock. It would also have been easy for him to also predict that the non-white voters would be more favorable to Initiative 300. These cultures are much more informed and accepting of extraterrestrial visitors to Earth in the past and present. By opposing Initiative 300, Linkhart could gain more favor among whites since he is not going to get many votes from the non-white population anyway.
The 17.66% for Initiative 300 is in line with a poll showing about 20% of the world's population believe that extraterrestrial visitors are already living among humans on Earth. The Reuters Ipsos poll was done with 23,000 people in 22 countries in April 2010. In China and India, 40% of the poll respondents said they believe ETs are already among us. Both of these cultures have ancient histories referring to extraterrestrial beings. Latino countries cover news stories about UFOs and ETs with far greater respect and professionalism than U.S. news media.
Even if the 17.66% for Initiative 300 truly represented the views of the general population, it is very significant. That means over 54,000,000 Americans share the same view. Ninety percent of the world’s countries have fewer than 54 million people. Worldwide, 17.66% represents over 1.2 billion people. That is about four times the population of the United States.
'Race' still can and does play a role in elections. The Denver election for Mayor could be the first election on Earth where the element of 'extraterrestrial' races has an influence. How this might impact City Councilman Linkhart, or any other of the fourteen candidates currently running for Denver Mayor, remains to be seen. But watch for more surprises.
