DENVER—Colorado voters are seeing it again: Nine eyebrow-raising proposals on the November ballot that would transform state policy on everything from bail practices to limits on government borrowing.
Colorado had 14 measures in 2008, and critics say too many issues are again making it onto the state’s ballot.
They blame a low threshold for how much support is needed. Colorado requires a lower percentage of residents to sign a ballot initiative than any other state, researchers say.
Organizers have to collect a number of voter signatures equal to 5 percent of total votes cast for the secretary of state in the previous election. That means that this year, 76,047 signatures were needed from the state’s 3.2 million registered voters.
Other states use bigger contests—such as governor’s races—as the basis for determining how many signatures are needed, and some also require that they be gathered from more than one area.
Only California and Oregon typically have more ballot proposals than Colorado, said Jim Griesemer, who chaired a 2007 University of Denver panel that studied the process.
Attempts to increase the number of signatures needed have failed. Former state Sen. Abel Tapia, a Pueblo Democrat, tried to raise the threshold and mandate that signatures come from around the state, but voters rejected that amendment in 2008.
To help voters wade through the issues, the state issued a 100-page-plus voter pamphlet. Early voting starts Monday.
Voters will be asked to determine a number of measures:
— One proposal would ban the state from borrowing money, cut school district property taxes and reduce telecommunication and vehicle registration fees. Colorado’s independent Legislative Council warns that the measures will bankrupt state government.
Proponents argue keeping more money in taxpayers’ pockets is the way to create jobs and grow the economy. Opponents have raised more than $6 million to defeat the measures.
— Voters also are considering Amendment 63, which would prohibit Colorado from forcing residents to buy public or private health insurance. Missouri overwhelmingly approved a similar measure in August, though the amendment is considered largely symbolic because federal law generally trumps state law.
— Under Proposition 102, only nonviolent offenders arrested for the first time could be released under supervision without having to post bail. The bail bonds industry, which has a great financial stake in bail policy, claims supervision programs put dangerous criminals on the streets. Many law enforcement officials differ, saying it’s needed to reduce jail overcrowding.
Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey, who opposes the measure, accused Prop 102’s supporters this month of paying people to demonstrate outside his office. The group promoting the measure denies that. Hilkey also wondered whether out-of-state interest groups are behind the campaign.
“The idea that this is a homegrown grassroots effort, you know, it’s a fraud,” Hilkey said.
— Gualberto Garcia Jones, an organizer of this year’s effort to ban abortions, said it took plenty of time to get his signatures for his group’s amendment. Amendment 62 would define a person “from the beginning of biological development.” It would outlaw abortions and could ban fertility treatments and emergency contraception if they harmed fertilized eggs.
“I think, for us, I can tell you it wasn’t too easy. It took up a year of my life,” said Jones, director of Personhood Colorado.
Personhood Colorado tried to pass a similar proposal two years ago. It failed by an almost 3-to-1 margin.
