ColoradoCare measure Amendment 69 defeated soundly

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A universal health care ballot measure was defeated in Colorado by an 80-20 margin.

ColoradoCare’s $36 billion budget would dwarf state government’s spending. 

Amendment 69, the ballot measure known as ColoradoCare that would have created a universal health care system in Colorado, was soundly defeated Tuesday night.

At 8:30 p.m., with nearly 1.8 million votes counted across the state, the amendment was trailing 79.6 percent to 20.4 percent, according to preliminary state figures. Updated vote totals at 7 a.m., with 86 percent of the vote counted, the measure continued trailing at roughly the same percentage or 1,833,879 to 467,424. Throughout the campaign, the measure had polled better with Democrats than Republicans. But even in left-leaning Denver, the amendment was losing 2-to-1, according to early returns.

At a downtown Denver watch party for supporters of the measure, the mood was quiet but not yet resigned to defeat.

“The early returns, I hope, are not reflective of Colorado,” said state Sen. Irene Aguilar, a Denver Democrat who is one of the amendment’s leading backers.

But supporters also acknowledged it was unlikely the measure would recover and vowed they would try again another year.

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