Early returns show Denver voters are keeping the city’s ban on flavored nicotine products.

As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, about 72 percent of ballots backed Referendum 310, with just over 113,000 ballots counted, according to updated results at 10:09 p.m. That margin means local stores will likely stop selling fruity flavored vaporizers and menthol cigarettes as the city moves to enforce the law in the coming weeks or months.

“I’m excited. I’m encouraged,” said Selena Dunham, an outreach coordinator with the Yes on 310 campaign, at a campaign event at Spangalang Brewery in Five Points. “I’m encouraged that people paid attention and that they think that the health of our children, our youth, is important.”

The Denver City Council approved the “flavor ban” last December in an 11-1 vote, and Mayor Mike Johnston signed it. Opponents later gathered nearly 11,000 valid signatures to put the measure to voters. A majority “yes” on Referendum 310 keeps the ban in place; a “no” would have repealed it.

The vote drew attention statewide and beyond. Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg donated about $5 million to the “yes” effort, Denver Kids vs. Big Tobacco — roughly the vast majority of that campaign’s budget. The Office of the Clerk and Recorder in Denver says it is the largest individual contribution ever recorded in a municipal race there. The funding paid for TV ads and other outreach in recent weeks; the yes campaign argued fruity nicotine flavors lure children into addiction.

Opponents, many of them local vape shop owners, argued the ban would cost livelihoods and drive customers to neighboring cities or online. Organized as Citizen Power!, they raised about $652,000 — with the Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance the top donor at $173,000. Multinational tobacco companies Altria and Philip Morris International together gave $75,000 early in the campaign but did not add funds in the final weeks.

Business owners gathered at Hudson Hill in Capitol Hill on Election Night to watch results. Kristen Hense, owner of Rusty’s Vape & Smoke Shop, spoke to Fox 31 as others, including Wally Albarghouthi and Naiel Ammari, followed returns. Opponents said Bloomberg’s late, large donation was hard to overcome. “The voters have spoken, and I don’t feel that they had all of the information that they needed just because we were just outspent in the last month,” said Phil Guerin, president of the Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance and owner of Myxed Up Creations on Colfax Ave. At the watch party, Guerin, who teared up, complained that the campaign’s ads lumped small vape shops with Big Tobacco. “I’m not Big Tobacco,” he said. “I think, absolutely, it’s ridiculous when a New York billionaire can come and put (millions) into a referendum in Denver. What kind of sense does that make? There’s gotta be a limit on that because at the end of the day, basically, Mike makes right, and that is not American.”

Supporters framed the vote as a public health issue. For some it was personal: Dunham said a dozen family members died from smoking-related illnesses, including an 85-year-old aunt who was a heavy smoker and had COPD. “I think we have a lot of work to do. There’s some people that are just still totally blind to how serious this matter is,” she said, noting decades of industry marketing in communities of color. “So we are making small steps, but I think we have a long way to go.”

The fight over flavored tobacco is part of a broader, years-long national debate. Denver became the 14th city in Colorado to restrict flavored tobacco sales, joining Aspen, Boulder, Breckenridge, Carbondale, Dillon, Eagle, Edgewater, Frisco, Glenwood Springs, Golden, Keystone, Silverthorne and Snowmass Village. Nationwide, nearly 400 municipalities and six states restrict flavored tobacco products, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

Both sides said the results would be watched beyond Denver. “I think it’s being watched very much from in state, out of state, most certainly, and I think it does have implications to inspire and to have an impact in other areas outside of Colorado,” said Jodi Radke, regional director for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

In past off-year elections about 170,000 ballots were counted, meaning more than half of this year’s total was likely in by Tuesday night.

This article was adapted from an original report published on denverite.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.