County Referendum Lawsuit Update

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Hello,

I just wanted to update everyone on the lawsuit with the county.

As of today, May 7th, we have filed our final reply brief with the Colorado Appeals court. It has taken over a year to finally get to a judge on some of the merits. Wild.

If you want, you can read all the court documents here. The most recent filings are at the bottom. (Court Document for Members Referendum Lawsuit — Alliance for Land Liberty)

Anytime starting next week, the panel of 3 appellate judges can make a ruling on our case. Right now, the two main questions to this court are: Is a referendum an initiative, and did the judge make a mistake in dismissing this case early?

We believe we win this hands down. We all saw Paonia’s STR referendum which was certainly different from an initiative. This seems to be very clear. Second, if this is true fact is true, then we win the case on all other points as well. Since there is no law, nor constitutional precedence for the Clerk to deny our rights.

Something interesting to note here is that our judge at the District Court, was the lead attorney in the only Supreme court case on county initiative and referendums(Board of County Commissioners v. County Road Users Ass'n – CourtListener.com). Deganhart was the attorney for the County, and she argued publicly against the rights of the county electors. We only recently discovered this fun fact.

The judge was required to, at minimum, disclose this to both parties before any motions were filed, she did not. We believe that her failure to disclose, coupled with her inability to differentiate initiatives and referendums, which led to an early dismissal of the case, and almost $9,000 in fines for what she called a frivolous case(without any rational basis), well this likely raises red flags for everyone who learns of this. Which is against a host of judicial codes of conduct and compromises the public’s confidence in this entire branch of government.

That all being said, this battle is not over. When we win, it will simply get sent back to a different District Court judge who would be required to actually have a hearing on the merits. If they are sent instructions from the appellate court, such as “a referendum is not an initiative,”. It would likely mean a win in the lower court and this would go to a vote in a certain amount of days, I would have to look at the statutes again to find out.

But the Courts could make this take as long as they want, since we are fighting the people who run the ship. I am hopeful of a speedy outcome, but I am not holding my breath.

At this point, I want to thank the other two soldiers in this with me Jake Dahlman and Ewelina Bajda, who have stood firm in the face of all that they have thrown at us. I know that I have put in over 500 hours on this case, with no lawyer and this doesn’t count the hundreds of they have also put in.

What this entire experience demonstrates is that, if the government can make any sort of rational argument to take any action, it isn’t illegal unless you can get a judge to say it is. This translates into a system that can run basically wild and only those with enough money can stand up for their rights. There are very, very few people who would have done what we are doing and we found no one with money who was going to fight this fight for the county.

At the end of the day, we will get a good look at our system here in Delta County. We will have identified all the leaky spots and we can get to work fixing that. If it ends that we need new laws written to allow referendum, so be it. We can work towards that. If we need a complete reform of whatever system, at least we know this now. So besides the county choosing to waste our money fighting us, something good will be the final result.

Take care,

James

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Thanks James! You’ve put so much hard work into this and this truly is a case that would impact all of Colorado - securing the people’s right to referendum at the county level.

Where can people go to donate or otherwise support you in this effort?

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Thank ye kindly,

You can donate directly to the legal campaign here: GiveSendGo | Support the Appeal for Delta County Electors

And then if you wish to donate to the long term effort by A4LL you can donate here. GiveSendGo | A4LL's Crowd Funding Campaign

If we can at very least dodge the legal fee’s this is a win. Would be a labor of love if we didn’t have this looming over our heads, I can’t say this labor has been exactly lovely to this point. A bit unnerving honestly.

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Right, so Judge Deganhart charged you $9000 in fines as a penalty for bringing the case to her in the first place. And we’re hoping that gets reversed, pending the appeals court ruling, but if not you would be personally liable.

So really you stuck your neck out there on behalf of the Colorado citizenry, and the overall response from the county and the courts has been to attempt to pound you into the sand. Which tells us all where they stand in terms of the peoples’ rights.

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Yea that is an accurate summary. Technically as of the Order in December, we owe the county attorneys $8,974, but there have been some delays in the collection due to pending motions in District court. Who knows, maybe the Appellate court will rule before we get done with District court paperwork.

Been a real eye opening experience for me but I had to see for myself the state of things. I can say for certain, the judicial system is not very open to the general public. There is so much focus on the president and politics, but I don’t often hear of ways to improve the justice system. I think both parties would agree that this could use some work.

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Where is this at now? Any movement at all?

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We are awaiting the ruling from the appeal court. No idea how long this may take.

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A bit of an update,

On June 2nd, 2025, the Appeal court accepted our late reply brief. I had made an error and thought this brief was due 28 days after the defense’s answer, when it was 21 days. The court allowed me to fix this mistake and accepted the final brief for the appeal.

I don’t think this would have resulted in an instant loss of the case if this brief hadn’t been accepted, because it was simply arguments against what the defense claimed. If you would like to read the reply brief, it is the last link on this page. (Court Document for Members Referendum Lawsuit — Alliance for Land Liberty)

So now, after a year and a half of jumping through hoops and following all the procedures, we will finally get a panel of three judges to rule on some of the merits. This small win is a good sign, as if this case had no merit, I doubt they would have accepted the late brief.

Three small farmers have been fighting this battle completely on their own. Hundreds of lawyers have refused to assist, but that doesnt mean you cannot help by sending a donation to our lawsuit fund (https://www.givesendgo.com/GEDMH). Who needs lawyers anyway? Just pick a fight with a few tenacious farmers and see what happens!

Anytime now the appeal court can make a ruling. If we win, the case will be sent back to a different district court to go through the process again. I assume the court will have to make a statement on the fact that an initiative isn’t a referendum. If they make this statement, the case is over; the county would have no laws nor court cases to refuse our right to referendum. This is our entire argument; the county has been gaslighting us, trying to claim that an initiative is a referendum. We have refused to allow this, and we continue to fight for our constitutional rights.

Thanks for your time,

James McCain