"The issue has not gone away for us," Phillips County Administrator Randy Schafer said. "We have no voice in how this state is run and we will still try to rectify that."
Eleven rural Colorado counties voted Tuesday on the question of whether their commissioners should proceed with plans to create a 51st state. Phillips County was one of five counties where the non-binding measure passed.
The other four counties were Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Washington and Yuma. Together, the five counties have a total population of about 29,200.
The measure failed 58 percent to 42 percent in Weld County — population 263,691 — where the 51st state idea first gained traction. Elbert, Lincoln, Logan, Moffat and Sedgwick counties also voted against secession.
Secession critic and retired University of Northern Colorado political science Prof. Steve Mazurana said the notion of breaking up with the Centennial State is all but dead.
"Without Weld County, the efforts to secede will go nowhere, at least for the next decade," said Mazurana.
Schafer said the 51st state movement will now look to state lawmakers, including State Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, to advance a measure in next year's legislative session to change statewide representation. Once such proposal is the Phillips Plan which would have representatives elected by county, rather than by population.
