Citizens in Charge

It doesn’t matter what you think of the process by which Coloradans put laws and constitutional amendments on the ballot. In this state, it’s a basic right protected in the state constitution. Lawmakers didn’t create that right and they can’t take it away.

Those were the words of Vincent Carroll at the Denver Post, editorializing against restrictions passed last year by the Colorado General Assembly and currently being challenged in federal court. Carroll goes on to note that the restrictions being challenged, particularly severe restrictions on how workers collecting petition signatures can be paid, aren’t even effective at their supposed purpose of preventing fraud.

The irony is that a linchpin of the 2009 law — the restriction on pay per signature — may not make a speck of difference. University of Florida Professor Daniel Smith tells me he knows of no relevant research suggesting circulators paid by the hour are more honest. For that matter, a study he co-authored in 2008 concluded “there is no clear pattern demonstrating that paying for signatures increases invalid rates” over volunteer efforts.

It is interesting to note that, even after the lawsuit was filed earlier this year, members of the General Assembly still tried to place even more restrictions on Colorado’s initiative process. Thanks to the hard work of a transpartisan coalition, including our partner organization Citizens in Charge, a bill that would have placed a supermajority vote requirement on citizen initiatives - but not on amendments referred by the legislature - was defeated in the final hours of the session.