Colorado 2018 ballot measures

Elections in Colorado, 2018

• General election: Nov. 6
• Voter registration deadline: Oct. 29
• Early voting: Mail ballots available Oct. 5
• Absentee voting deadline: Nov. 6

• Online registration: Yes
• Same-day registration: Yes
• Voter ID: Non-photo ID required for in-person voting
• Poll times: 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

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Thirteen (13) statewide ballot measures were certified for the ballot in Colorado on November 6, 2018. Five measures were approved and eight were defeated.

HIGHLIGHTS

During the 2018 legislative session, the state legislature referred six legislatively referred constitutional amendments to the November 2018 ballot. Four were approved and two were defeated.

Among the legislative referrals were two amendments that would establish redistricting commissions responsible for congressional and state legislative district maps; the amendments were approved unanimously in the state legislature and also were approved by voters.

Seven citizen-initiated measures qualified for the ballot. All were defeated except Proposition 111, which was designed to reduce the annual interest rate on payday loans to a yearly rate of 36 percent and eliminate all other finance charges and fees associated with payday lending.

On the ballot

Type	Title	Subject	Description	Result
LRCA	Amendment A	Constitutional rights and Constitutional language	Repeals a constitutional exception on the ban of slavery that allowed for slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime	a
LRCA	Amendment V	Legislature	Reduces age qualification for legislative members from 25 to 21	d
LRCA	Amendment W	Elections and campaigns	Shortens language on the Colorado ballot regarding judicial retention by consolidating questions	d
LRCA	Amendment X	Marijuana	Changes the definition of industrial hemp from a constitutional definition to a statutory definition	a
LRCA	Amendment Y	Redistricting measures	Establishes an independent commission for congressional redistricting	a
LRCA	Amendment Z	Redistricting measures	Establishes an independent commission for state legislative redistricting	a
CICA/SS	Amendment 73	Taxes and Education	Establishes income tax brackets and raises taxes to fund education	d
CICA	Amendment 74	Property	Requires that property owners be compensated for any reduction in property value caused by state laws or regulations	d
CICA	Amendment 75	Elections and campaigns	Changes campaign finance contribution limits and requirements	d
CISS	Proposition 109	Bond issues and Transportation issues	Authorizes bonds for transportation projects without raising taxes	d
CISS	Proposition 110	Taxes, Bonds, and Transportation	Authorizes bonds for transportation projects and raises taxes to repay the debt	d
CISS	Proposition 111	Banking	Restricts the charges on payday loans to a yearly rate of 36 percent	a
CISS	Proposition 112	Fracking	Mandates minimum setbacks for new oil and gas development projects, including fracking	d

Getting measures on the ballot

In Colorado, citizens have the powers of initiative, both statute and constitutional, and veto referendum. To get an initiated state statute on the ballot in 2018, proponents needed to collect 98,492 valid signatures within the six months following the initiative proposal's finalization. Section 1 of Article V of the Colorado Constitution states that signatures are due three months before the election, which was August 6, 2018.

Colorado is one of 23 states that allow citizens to refer an enacted bill to the ballot as a veto referendum. As with initiatives, a veto referendum required 98,492 valid signatures. A referendum petition must be filed within 90 days following the Colorado General Assembly's final adjournment of the session in which the bill was passed.

The Colorado General Assembly may also propose amendments to the people as legislatively referred constitutional amendments. A two-thirds vote of each chamber of the legislature is required to refer an amendment to the ballot. The 2018 legislative session ran from January 10 through May 9, 2018.

Historical facts

See also: List of Colorado ballot measures and History of Initiative & Referendum in Colorado

• A total of 118 measures appeared on statewide ballots in Colorado from 1995 through 2017.
• From 1995 through 2017, the number of measures on statewide ballots ranged from zero to 14.
• From 1995 through 2017, an average of between nine and 10 measures appeared on statewide ballots during even-numbered years.
• From 1995 through 2017, about 42 percent (44 of 104) of the total number of measures that appeared on statewide ballots during even-numbered years were approved, and about 58 percent (60 of 104) were defeated.

Positions of political parties on Colorado 2018 ballot measures

The following table illustrates the official positions of the Democratic, Republican, Green, and Libertarian parties of Colorado on the thirteen 2018 amendments. A grey bar indicates that the party was either neutral or no position was taken.

Colorado party endorsements for 2018 ballot measures
Proposition	Colorado Democratic Party	Colorado Republican Party	Colorado Green Party	Colorado Libertarian Party
Amendment A: Repeals a constitutional exception on the ban of slavery that allowed for slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime	a	tc	a	a
Amendment V: Reduces age qualification for legislative members from 25 to 21	a	tc	a	a
Amendment W: Shortens language on the Colorado ballot regarding judicial retention by consolidating questions	a	tc	tc	a
Amendment X: Changes the definition of industrial hemp from a constitutional definition to a statutory definition	a	tc	d	d
Amendment Y: Establishes an independent commission for congressional redistricting	a	a	d	d
Amendment Z: Establishes an independent commission for state legislative redistricting	a	a	d	d
Amendment 73: Establishes income tax brackets and raises taxes to fund education	a	tc	tc	d
Amendment 74: Requires that property owners be compensated for any reduction in property value caused by state laws or regulations	d	a	d	a
Amendment 75: Changes campaign finance contribution limits and requirements	tc	tc	d	a
Proposition 109 (Fix Our Damn Roads): Authorizes bonds for transportation projects without raising taxes to repay the debt	d	tc	d	a
Proposition 110 (Let's Go Colorado): Authorizes bonds for transportation projects and raises taxes to repay the debt	a	tc	d	d
Proposition 111: Restricts payday loan charges	a	tc	a	d
Proposition 112: Fracking setbacks of 2,500 feet	a	d	a	d

Summary of campaign contributions

See also: Ballot measure campaign finance, 2018

The following chart illustrates how much support and opposition committees had amassed in campaign contributions for each measure on the ballot:

Note: In some cases committees were registered to support or oppose multiple propositions. Ballotpedia lists the total sum that all committees registered to support or oppose each proposition have received in contributions. This means that the sum of all contributions in the chart below is higher than the total amount contributed.

Ballot Measure:	Support contributions:	Opposition contributions:	Outcome:
Colorado Proposition 109	$778,595.30	$7,407,939.11	d

Cost per required signature

See also: Ballot measure signature costs, 2018

The cost-per-required signature (CPRS) is a comparison of the amount of money spent on the petition drive to the number of signatures the state requires for an initiative to make the ballot. The following chart illustrates the CPRS for ballot initiatives.

Seven citizen initiatives were on the ballot in Colorado in November 2018, second only to California with eight. A total of $7,331,985.41 was spent by committees behind the citizen-initiated measures that qualified for the ballot. All seven citizen initiatives required 98,492 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Initiated constitutional amendments, however, also had to meet the state's distribution requirement of signatures equal to 2 percent of the registered voters from each of the state's 35 senate districts.

The signature costs for Amendment 74 and Amendment 75 are unknown because expenditures for signature gathering were not found by the committees officially registered to support those initiatives. The signature costs, petition companies, required signatures, and the cost per required signatures (CPRS) for the other initiatives on the ballot are below:

Ballot measure:	Topic:	Petition company:	Cost:	Signatures:	CPRS:
Colorado Amendment 73	Taxes	various individuals	$146,352.15	98,492	$1.49
Colorado Proposition 109	Bond issues and transportation	Kennedy Enterprises	$321,112.62	98,492	$3.26
Colorado Proposition 110	Bond issues and transportation	Kennedy Enterprises, Rocky Mountain Voter Outreach, and FieldWorks	$591,356.82	98,492	$6.00
Colorado Proposition 111	Banking	FieldWorks	$1,274,439	98,492	$12.94
Colorado Proposition 112	Fracking	Direct Action Partners and Encore Political Services	$567,174.82	98,492	$5.67

Of the total, $4.4 million was spent by Protect Colorado, the committee opposing Proposition 112 and that provided at least $10 million to the committee behind Amendment 74. It is unclear on what initiative or initiatives this $4.4 million was spent. As of October 25, Protect Colorado did not respond to Ballotpedia's requests for information on which initiatives these expenditures were used. Besides contributing to the committee behind Amendment 74, Protect Colorado reported in-kind contributions of $187,500 to the committee backing Proposition 110 in the form of paid signature gathering. Protect Colorado hired PAC/West to gather signatures. PAC/West and the Colorado Farm Bureau—which was also behind Amendment 74—provided contributions of $23,806.76 and $10,000, respectively, to the committee behind Amendment 75. According to the secretary of state's records on which organizations and companies were licensed to collect signatures for which initiative petitions, every organization or company that was licensed to collect signatures for Amendment 74 (Initiative #108) was also licensed to collect signatures for Amendment 75 (Initiative #173). Many on the list, however, were licensed for multiple different initiative efforts.

Given the uncertainties surrounding the expenditures by Protect Colorado and the signature petition costs for Amendments 74 and 75, Ballotpedia is providing a range of possible average and total signature petition costs in Colorado:

• Total state petition costs: $2,900,435 - $7,331,985
• Average petition costs: $580,087 - $1,047,426
• Average cost per required signatures (CPRS): $5.87 - $10.62

Not on the ballot

See also: Proposed ballot measures that were not on a ballot

The list below contains measures that were proposed and reached a certain stage in the initiative or referral process, but did not make the ballot.

Type	ID	Description	Topic	Status
CISS	#11	Candidate Disclosure of Income Tax Returns Initiative	Elections
CICA	#4	Voting on Limiting Housing Growth Initiative	Housing
CICA	#5	Medical Aid in Dying Initiative	Assisted Death
CISS	#29	Prohibit Sale of Smartphones to Persons Under Age 13 Initiative	Business
CISS	#23-28	Sales Tax Increase for Transportation Funds Initiative	Taxes
CISS	#53	State to Give Fine or Forfeiture Revenue to Victims and Charities	Law Enforcement
CICA	#48, #67, #68	Redistricting Commission for State Legislative Districts	Redistricting
CISS	#50, #69	Redistricting Commission for Congressional Districts	Redistricting
CISS	$66	Voting on Limiting Housing Growth Statute	Housing
CISS	#82	Identification Card and Driver's License Procurement Requirements	Administration and Immigration
CICA	#95	Congressional Redistricting Commission and Requirements Constitutional Amendment	Redistricting
CICA	#96	State Legislature Redistricting Commission and Requirements Constitutional Amendment	Redistricting
CISS	#174	Preservation of Flat Tax Rate Initiative	Taxes
CICA/SS	#133-144; #157; #159, #161-162, #165-166	Increased Tax on High Income and New Tax Credit	Taxes
CISS	#94	Severance Taxes on Oil and Natural Gas	Taxes
CISS	#169	Federal Immigration Law Compliance Initiative	Immigration
CISS	#60	Repeal of Provisions Concerning Large-Capacity Ammunition Magazines	Firearms
CISS	#62	Shortened Income Tax Forms and No Criminal Penalties	Taxes
CICA	#73	Colorado Requirements for Providing Public Education	Education
CISS	#119, #147	Display of Healthcare Service Prices Requirement	Healthcare
CISS	#120	Display of Drug Prices Requirement	Healthcare
CISS	#125	GMO Labeling of Food Initiative	Food and agriculture
CICA	#170	Congressional Redistricting Initiative	Redistricting measures
CICA	#171	Legislative Redistricting Initiative	Redistricting measures
CISS	#172	Roads and Bridges Bonds Initiative	Bonds
CISS	#175-177	Runoff Primary Elections Initiative	Elections and campaigns
CISS	#20	Severance Taxes on Oil and Natural Gas	Taxes
CISS	#61	Criminal Justice Procedures	Law enforcement
CISS	#70	Severance Taxes on Oil and Natural Gas	Taxes
CISS	#168	Lower Voting Age Requirement Amendment	Elections and campaigns
CISS	#9	Lower Alcohol Drinking Age	Alcohol
CICA	#33	Amendment 71 Repeal and Electronic Signatures	Direct Democracy
CISS	#30	Automatic Voter Registration	Suffrage
CISS	#31	Efficiency Gap in Congressional Districts	Redistricting
CISS	#32	Income Tax to Fund Voter Credit	Taxes on the ballot
CISS	#36	Income Tax to Fund College Tuition and Fees Scholarship	Taxes
CISS	#83	Shortened Income Tax Forms and No Criminal Penalties	Taxes
CISS	#123, #146	Display of Healthcare Service Prices Requirement	Healthcare
CISS	#164	Prohibit Sale of Smartphones to Persons Under Age 13 Initiative	Business
CICA	#178-181	State and Local Oil and Gas Development Regulations Initiative	Energy
CISS	#183	Reduce Maximum Annual Interest Rate on Payday Loans Initiative	Banking
CISS	#184	Reduce Lender Monthly Maintenance Fee Initiative	Banking

See also

• 2018 ballot measures
• List of Colorado ballot measures
• Laws governing the initiative process in Colorado
• History of Initiative & Referendum in Colorado

External links

• Colorado Secretary of State Proposed Initiative Status
• Initiatives Filed with the Colorado Legislative Counsel