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BOULDER - Denver County election officials are taking a break from counting ballots with about 17 percent of the ballots still to go. Election workers started leaving around 5 a.m. Denver County tweeted that they were taking what they called a "pause for the cause." "We want to get our folks rested so they are sharp upon their return," Denver Elections officials said.

A personhoood amendment failed by a lopsided margin for a third time in Colorado, despite efforts by backers of the amendment to change the language and approach of the amendment in an effort to gain additional support. Despite the language changes, the latest version of the Colorado personhood amendment would not have stopped abortions or protected pregnant women and their unborn children from violence because it would have been overturned in court even if approved. Colorado voters defeated Amendment 67, or the Brady Amendment, by a vote of 64-36%, with 69% percent reporting. colorado5In 2008, a wave Democratic election year...

Fox News projects that Republicans are making another two pick-ups in the battle for the Senate. This brings their total so far to five, with just six needed to take control of the Senate. In Montana, Republican Steve Daines is projected to defeat Democrat Amanda Curtis, flipping control of the seat to the Republican Party for the first time since 1913. In Colorado, GOP Rep. Cory Gardner is projected to oust first-term Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, one of the most closely watched contests in this election cycle Republicans have picked up three Senate seats, Fox News projects, bringing them halfway...

Early exit polls show GOP wins in KY, AR, CO, IA, KS, GA - if those hold, GOP Senate majority is certain. Watch VA - closer than expected. Early exit polls show GOP wins in KY, AR, CO, IA, KS, GA - if those hold, GOP Senate majority is certain. Watch VA - closer than expected.— Sean Noble (@seannobledc)

Fox news just called it for Cory Gardner over Mark Udall in Colorado..

Lena Dunham has teamed up with rapper Lil Jon in this exclusive new music video for "Rock the Vote" in which she "turns out" for abortion rights and promotes other issues that will reportedly influence American millennials to vote this fall. "My name is Lil Lena and I'm turning out for reproductive rights," she confessed. "What's up? It's Lil Jon and I'm turning out for the legalization of marijuana," said the rapper. Sophia Bush, Natasha Lyonne, Glee's Darren Criss, and several other celebrities are featured "Rock the Vote" ambassadors. The midterm elections are just around the corner, and this star-studded...

A Colorado reader digests the latest early voting numbers: Dems had better get a huge turnout advantage on election day. If the election were based on the votes through yesterday afternoon, they would need to carry Independents by 65-35 to make up the difference (now, I realize that some GOP voters will go Dem, and Dem voters will go GOP, so this might not be completely accurate, but it’s close). To put this in perspective, according to the SoS numbers as of the end of October, here is what voter registration looks like: Total: 2,986,362 GOP 966,082 (32.3%) Dem: 913,246...

I wanted to get the current opinion of Freepers on whether or not they believe Gary Johnson will cost Mitt Romney the election? I am asking this because I have been seeing more and more polls as well as interest on Facebook and Twitter about Gary getting the Ron Paul voters and Independents to swing his way. A lot of them are from the legalize crowd and the others are from the Alex Jones wing. Recent polls in Montana show Johnson picking up 2% of the vote, in places like Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada he is picking up around...

Low-income residents in a California city will soon be able to get high for free. The Berkeley City Council has passed a law requiring medical marijuana dispensaries to distribute 2 percent of their stashes to people making less than $32,000 per year or $46,000 per family. Under the new ordinance, which was approved unanimously this summer, only city residents will be eligible and they must have a prescription. 'Basically, the city council wants to make sure that low-income, homeless, indigent folks have access to their medical marijuana, their medicine,” Councilman Darryl Moore told CBS San Francisco. The law requires that the...

<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell told the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee that the federal government does not have the power to stop states from allowing people to use welfare benefits to buy marijuana.</p> <p>In a letter addressed to Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who asked Health and Human Services about the policy earlier this year, Burwell said the law simply excludes any mention of marijuana dispensaries in the list of places where people are prohibited from using welfare, formally known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.</p>

Welfare recipients can’t use their EBT cards at liquor stores but they can at marijuana dispensaries in states such as Colorado that have legalized pot, Sen. Jeff Sessions revealed Tuesday. The Alabama Republican announced that he was drafting legislation to close the welfare-for-weed loophole after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to him that marijuana shops were not off limits to EBT cards, which replaced food stamps, or other federal benefits.

The Nuclear Option: A Foreign Policy Conducted in a Drug-Addled Haze See, kids, this is why you don’t do drugs. And this is why you will always eventually regret voting for somebody who boasted of all the coke and dope he did while smoldering about his absentee father. President Choom Gang has demilitarized our military. He sends the Department of Health and Human Services to the Mexican border to welcome and take care of tens of thousands of illegal children streaming across. And now he wants to deploy American troops into West Africa to combat the Ebola virus. Boy, is...

A commission composed mostly of former world leaders will recommend Tuesday that governments move beyond legalizing marijuana and decriminalize and regulate the use of most other illegal drugs, including heroin and cocaine. The international drug-control system is broken, says a report to be released Tuesday in New York by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Governments should be allowed wide latitude to experiment with the regulation of drugs, except for the most lethal, says the commission, whose 21 members include former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, and former presidents such as Brazil´s...

Immigration: When California Gov. Jerry Brown hung out the "all welcome" sign for illegals, Mexico's drug cartels heard him loud and clear. Raids on Thursday left lawmen declaring Los Angeles a cash-laundering mecca. Roping off 100 blocks of downtown Los Angeles this week, federal agents from the U.S. attorney's office raided roughly 70 garment district businesses along with a few houses in tony Westwood and Beverly Hills. The suspected crime was laundering money for Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. Agents hauled out $65 million in cash stuffed in duffel bags, suitcases and boxes, some of it blood-spattered. The cash came from hostage...

The House passed a bill Tuesday that could make it a little harder for people to use government welfare payments to buy marijuana in states where the drug is legal. Supporters call it the “no welfare for weed” bill. The bill would prevent people from using government-issued welfare debit cards to make purchases at stores that sell marijuana. It would also prohibit people from using the cards to withdraw cash from ATMs in those stores. …

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel is famously outspoken and sharp-tongued, and on CNBC on Wednesday he did not disappoint. In a "Squawk Box" interview.Thiel trashed Twitter, Uber and Apple, among others, "Twitter is hard to evaluate. They have a lot of potential. It's a horribly mismanaged company—probably a lot of pot-smoking going on there. But it's such a solid franchise it may even work with all that," the co-founder of PayPal and early Facebook investor said.

<p>An Alaska television reporter wrapped up a live segment on medical marijuana with a curse and an "I quit," telling viewers she will work instead to legalize pot in the state.</p> <p>Charlo Greene revealed she was in fact the owner of the "cannabis club" featured in her story on Anchorage's KTVA 10 p.m. broadcast Sunday.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Conservatives are losing ground on the fight to keep marijuana illegal, a Republican congressman warned in dire terms at the Values Voter Summit. During a conference mostly focused on religious liberty, abolishing the IRS and promoting small government, Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) delivered a full speech on the ills of decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana. Fleming, a medical doctor, warned of a "growing acceptance" of marijuana -- a fact hard to deny, considering public opinion and state laws. Colorado and Washington state have legalized recreational marijuana, and 23 states and the District of Columbia have allowed the substance for...

A ballot issue in Florida this November will be "Amendment 2", a measure that would legalize medical marijuana in the state. Crist and his liberal ally, attorney John Morgan, are proponents of the ballot measure, while current GOP governor Rick Scott is against it. WFTV9 reports: Crist has changed parties and changed stances on gay marriage, abortion and medical marijuana. He said he will vote yes on Amendment 2. “I do support it,” Crist said. “Rick Scott opposes it; I don't know what else to tell you.” Critics think medical marijuana was pushed onto the ballot by Attorney John Morgan...

As marijuana restrictions are eased throughout the nation, lawmakers from both parties are looking to the drug as a potential cash cow to shore up budget deficits and fill local and state coffers. For Democrats, however, a far more insidious pattern is developing, as recent moves by left-wing indicate they see in marijuana as a powerful tool to further control their largely poor and minority constituency with this 21st century "opiate for the masses." The city of Berkeley, CA recently moved to institute policy requiring "medicinal" marijuana outlets to allot certain amounts of their product to be distributed free to...