Tight Colorado wolf initiative may trigger recount

An initiative to reintroduce wolves to Colorado was barely passing and possibly headed toward a recount, Wednesday.

Proposition 114, if approved, would require Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to reintroduce and manage gray wolves west of the continental divide by the end of 2023.

As of mid-day Wednesday, with 89% of precincts reporting, 1,425,944 had voted yes on the initiative and 1,415,796 voting no for a difference of 10,148. Per Colorado state law a recount is triggered when the difference between the high and low count is equal to or less than 0.5% of the higher vote count. In this case, that’s a margin of 7,129 votes, The Colorado Sun reported.

The initiative would be the first time in the United States that voters, not wildlife officials, approved the reintroduction of wolves. The vote in Colorado has, so far, broken along rural/urban lines, the Colorado Sun reports.