Colorado is one of 24 states that allow citizen-initiated ballot measures, letting its residents bypass the legislature and petition to bring policy proposals directly to voters. Even rarer, it is among only eighteen states that permit citizens to bring forward ballot measures to amend the state constitution.
More than 250 citizen-initiated measures have landed on Colorado ballots between 1912 and 2022, with ninety of them passing into law, according to the state's Legislative Council Staff. State laws ranging from legalizing recreational marijuana to reintroducing gray wolves and establishing the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights — aka TABOR — all came straight from the people.
While there's still time to send your whims to the voters next Election Day, here’s everything you need to know about citizen initiatives and how to submit them:
Citizen Initiatives Coming in 2024
Ninety-six proposals for citizen ballot measures have been submitted to the state as of December 5, according to the Legislative Council Staff. But very few will actually end up on the ballot come November 2024. Only one of the proposals has actually qualified so far: Initiative 50.
The measure seeks to cap property tax revenue increases at 4 percent each year, requiring voter approval for the government to keep tax revenue beyond that. Initiative 50 would change the state constitution, so it needs 55 percent of the vote to pass.
Four other proposals have been approved to start gathering petition signatures to try to qualify for the ballot. If passed, those measures would:
- Allow state funds to be used to pay for abortions, including Medicaid and state employee health insurance.
- Ban abortion at any point after conception, classifying it as "homicide."
- Prohibit governments from passing any law or regulation to favor or restrict different energy sources.
- Require a ballot measure's economic impact statement to be included on the ballot before the question.
Who Can Submit a Citizen Ballot Measure?
Any Coloradan can file to place a measure on the ballot, with no specific requirements outlined regarding age, citizenship status or length of residency. "State law does not impose any eligibility requirement on a proponent of a ballot measure," says Jack Todd, a spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. "The Colorado Constitution says that the power to initiate legislation is reserved to 'the people' of the state."
There are similarly few restrictions on the type of ballot measures that can be proposed: Measures must only relate to one subject and, during odd-year elections, all statewide ballot measures have to be tax-related under TABOR.
How to Submit a Ballot Measure
While the requirements are simple, the process of getting a citizen measure on the ballot is a lot more complicated. The first step is submitting the proposal to the Legislative Council Staff, which will schedule a public review meeting two weeks later. During the meeting, legislative staff and legal services will question proponents on their proposed measure and make sure its wording achieves their stated purpose. Proponents may then revise their proposal. If the revisions are substantial, it must be resubmitted for another review meeting in another two weeks.
After the review process, proponents send their original and revised proposal to the Secretary of State to get a ballot title. Ballot titles are only set on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. The Title Board must rule that the proposal only relates to one subject. If it doesn't, the proposal must be revised and potentially sent back to legislative staff for review, if the revisions are substantial.
Once the ballot title is set, the hard part begins: petitioning.
Initiative proposals need 124,238 signatures from registered voters to make it onto the ballot — at least 5 percent of the total votes cast in the last race for Colorado Secretary of State. If the proposal seeks to amend the Colorado Constitution, the petition also needs signatures from at least 2 percent of registered voters in each state Senate district. Signed petitions must be sent to the Secretary of State for verification within six months of the bill title being set and at least three months before the election. The secretary, who is currently Jena Griswold, has thirty days to review the petition and determine if enough valid signatures were collected.
If enough signatures are valid, the proposed initiative qualifies for the ballot.
Deadlines for the November 2024 Election
There's still plenty of time to get a measure added to the 2024 ballot before Election Day on November 5. The last day to submit a proposal (or to re-submit a revised proposal) is March 22, 2024; the last day for a legislative staff review meeting and to file for a bill title is April 5; the Title Board's final meeting is April 17.
All ballot measure petitions are due by August 5, and the Secretary of State has until September 4 to verify the signatures.
