Colorado
You have full Initiative & Referendum rights. Citizens can pass laws they write or suspend a statute passed by the Legislature by collecting enough petition signatures to place the statute on the statewide ballot for a decision by the voters. Voters can also initiate constitutional amendments by Initiative.
Coalition Partners:
Poll:
See the results of a poll on support for statewide initiative & referendum here.
Grade: C+
Click here to view Colorado’s individual report in Of the People, By the People, For the People: A 2010 Report Card on Statewide Voter Initiative Rights.
State Balloting Process
How you can change Colorado’s government through ballot initiatives
History
The effort for I&R in Colorado was started by Dr. Persifor M. Cooke of
Denver in the mid-1890s. As secretary and president of the Colorado
Direct Legislation League, Cooke and the constitutional lawyer J. Warner
Mills of Denver fought for I&R from 1900 until 1910, when Governor John F.
Shafroth called a special session of the legislature to consider the issue… Read More
Ballot Qualifications & Schedule
Date Initiative language can be submitted to state for November 2010:
Anytime
Signatures are tied to vote of which office: Secretary of State
Next Secretary of State election: 2012
Votes cast for Secretary of State in last election: 1,717,060
Net number of signatures required: 5% of votes cast for Secretary of State
in last election, for both statutes and amendments. (85,853 signatures)
Distribution Requirement: None
Circulation period: 6 months
Do circulators have to be residents: No
Date when signatures are due for certification: The petition must be filed
within 6 months from when the final language is set by the Title Board and
no later than 3 months before a statewide election.
Signature verification process: The Secretary of State verifies signatures by
a random sample procedure. Not less than five percent of the signatures,
and in no event fewer than 4,000 signatures, are to be verified. If the
sample indicates that the number of valid signatures is 90 percent or less
of the required total, the petition is deemed to have insufficient signatures.
If the valid signatures are found to be 110 percent or more of number
required, the petition is deemed sufficient. However, if the number of valid
signatures is found to be over 90 percent but less than 110 percent of the
required number, the law requires that each signature on the petition be
verified.
Single-subject restriction: Yes
Legislative tampering: The Legislature can repeal and amend an initiative
statute passed by the voters.
Excerpted from the Initiative & Referendum Almanac by M. Dane Waters.