Re: Aug. 15 news story.
Your article on ballot initiatives pointed out how Colorado’s process for getting initiatives on the ballot is one of the easiest in the nation, using the same threshold for statutory and constitutional amendments. Yet our state constitution and statutes serve different purposes.
Constitutions are meant to protect fundamental rights and outline the framework of government, while statutes are intended to address how government functions and citizens interact within that framework. Constitutions should be subject to amendment only with widespread approval and after careful consideration — not available through the typical campaign of slogans and sound bites.
Further, the current system for signature gathering allows urban areas to control access to the ballot, to the exclusion of the rest of the state.
The Raise The Bar proposal addresses these critical problems. Thatap why the proposal is supported not just by Gov. John Hickenlooper, but by every living former Colorado governor, Republican and Democrat alike.
Steve C. Briggs,Denver
Your article suggested that it is easy to pass state initiatives in Colorado. You should have included “… if you have a million dollars.”
Initiative 96 will make an already onerous initiative process impossible for grass-roots citizen groups. It won’t lessen the number of initiatives because corporate interests with deep pockets have the money to keep doing initiatives under the proposed stricter requirements. Initiative 96, funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from big business groups and corporations that currently control our legislature and elections, will make the initiative too costly for grass-roots groups, effectively silencing the people’s voice.
Coloradans have had the fundamental right to do ballot initiatives for over 100 years, which offers direct democracy when politicians lack the political will to do the work of the people, or are corrupted by big money. Coloradans, don’t let corporations steal your right to the initiative.
Sandy Toland, Aurora
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