Douglas County is trying to do something no other Colorado county has done in nearly 50 years — adopt home-rule authority that would give the conservative bastion south of Denver more autonomy and powers of self-governance.

But the road to that reality has been anything but smooth, with a rally last week in Castle Rock decrying the move, a tense town hall meeting at county headquarters that ended in shouts and jeers — and a lawsuit attempting to shut the whole thing down.

Meanwhile, ballots started hitting mailboxes less than a week ago for the June 24 special election. If voters back the idea, the vote would kick-start the drafting of a home-rule charter by a 21-member commission.

A second vote in November would then seek final approval for the charter itself.

Local control has become a mantra of sorts across Colorado in recent years, with cities and counties lashing out — even taking legal action — against a state government they accuse of overreach in matters of local concern. The resistance ranges from the “Second Amendment sanctuary county” movement of six years ago, which conservative counties launched in response to new gun control laws, to last month’s lawsuit against the state and Gov. Jared Polis by Aurora and five suburban cities. They were attempting to block two recent land-use laws aimed at increasing housing density.

Commissioner George Teal, one of the chief proponents of home-rule authority for the county of nearly 400,000, said the time has come for Douglas County to assert its independence from a legislature that has shifted decidedly to the left over the past decade.

Home-rule authority, Teal said, will give Douglas County greater legal standing to take on state laws that its leaders believe go too far. It will represent a “shifting of the burden” onto the state, requiring officials to come after the county if the state believes its authority is being usurped — rather than the other way around.

Douglas County has sued Colorado twice recently over disagreements involving property tax valuations and the level of cooperation local law enforcement can give federal immigration authorities. The county lost both cases.

“We will be an independent legal entity under state law — and we are not that as a statutory county,” Teal said. “Home rule is the very mechanism of local control.”

Opponents, operating under the Stop the Power Grab banner, say the run-up to this month’s election has been anything but transparent and open. They accuse the commissioners of quietly concocting the home-rule plan over a series of more than a dozen meetings starting late last year — and rubber-stamping the decision at a public hearing in late March. That meeting lasted mere minutes.

“What this has brought out in us is the question of — why now?” said Kelly Mayr, a nearly three-decade resident of Highlands Ranch and a member of Stop the Power Grab. “Why are they rushing it? If this is a good idea for the county, why would we not take our time?”

Three Douglas County residents, including state Rep. Bob Marshall and former Commissioner Lora Thomas, sued the county commissioners in April, alleging multiple violations of Colorado’s open meetings laws. They asked the court to stop the June 24 election from going forward.