Ranger Review Editor

Election Day 2016 was a shock to everybody across the nation including here in our own neck of the woods. There were a lot of hot pressing issues on the ballot for Colorado this November. Some of these issues included raising the minimum wage, allowing more changes to the state constitution, raising the taxes on tobacco products and the creation of Colorado Care. There was also a race for the senate seat in congress and of course the Presidential Election.

A lot of changes to our State Constitution were on the ballot. One of the issues on the ballot was increasing the minimum wage to $12.00 by the year 2020. This change was extremely appealing to employees in minimum wage jobs but not to small business owners who can hardly afford to pay their employees as is. The counter argument for this is that if minimum wage employees who get paid more money will spend the money locally. This amendment was passed by nearly 54% of the electorate so in 2017 the minimum wage will jump to $9.30 an hour and will increase by 90 cents each year until 2020.

Another movement on the ballot for Coloradans this year was allowing less access to the state constitution to citizen groups. For years citizen groups were able to access the state constitution and change various amendments in the constitution to benefit them. The ballot passed with a 56% majority so no in order to change amendments in the state constitution they have to be voted on.

Along with the various issues on the ballot, there were also people to be voted into office. One of the elections that took place in Colorado this year was for the empty senate seat. The two politicians running for the seat were Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Lieutenant Connel Darryl Glenn. Darryl Glenn was an Air Force Academy graduate and served in the United States for over 21 years and retired in 2009. Senator Michael Bennet is the incumbent senator and was running for his second term. On the election day, Coloradans took to the poles and gave Senator Bennet a second chance on capitol hill.

The most important election ran in Colorado was the Presidential Election. The Election was between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton is the wife of former president Bill Clinton and runner for President for the second time. The first time she ran was in 2008 and she lost in the primaries to president Barack Obama. Donald Trump is a newcomer in the political landscape. In his first year as a politician, Donald Trump made it all the way to the presidential election against Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton was able to win Colorado and also the popular vote but despite that, Donald Trump won the election based off of the electoral college.

The people of Colorado and our country have spoken and hopefully the uses the people voted yes or no on and the people they elected into office will make a huge change in our country for the better.