Ballot Initiatives in Colorado
| Publication year | 1992 |
| Pages | 1849 |
1992, September, Pg. 1849. Ballot Initiatives in Colorado
On November 3, registered electors in Colorado will not only cast votes for president and other national and state offices, but also will consider numerous ballot questions which will impact fundamental aspects of life in Colorado for years to come. In past general elections, Colorado voters have adopted initiated constitutional amendments creating term limitations for members of the Colorado legislature and congressional delegation,(fn1) establishing English as the official language of Colorado,(fn2) and prohibiting the Winter Olympics from being held in Colorado.(fn3)
The Secretary of State's office has received forty-six initiated measures for the 1992 general election. As of the date of publication of this article, it appeared that from twelve to fifteen of those initiatives would qualify for the November ballot. According to Secretary of State Natalie Meyer, "This will be the biggest ballot that Colorado's ever had."(fn4) With subjects as wide-ranging as additional tax revenues for public schools, expanded locations for casino gaming and limitations on hunting black bears, the variety and number of the initiated measures proposed this year demonstrate that Colorado citizens consider the initiative process to be a viable alternative to traditional legislative policy-making.
This article examines the constitutional and statutory framework of the initiative process in Colorado. In addition, the article reviews the tests established by the Colorado Supreme Court to determine whether proponents of initiatives have complied with the constitutional and statutory requirements, and whether the title-setting board has met its statutory duties in setting titles for proposed initiatives.
Colorado is one of twenty-three states in which the state constitution authorizes the people to participate directly in policy-making through the adoption of initiated laws.(fn5) Between 1898 and 1918, nineteen states adopted constitutional amendments authorizing the initiative. Although this trend toward direct democracy can be attributed to the rise of the populist and progressive movements in American politics during the 1880s and 1890s, mainstream politicians such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson also eventually embraced these devices.(fn6)
The Colorado General Assembly adopted House Bill 6 at a special session of the legislature in 1910. This bill placed the initiative and referendum question on the 1910 general election ballot, and the voters approved it on November 8, 1910.
The original initiative provision did not establish the elaborate process which exists today for the adoption of initiated laws. When the initiative power was added in 1910, anyone who could obtain the signatures of at least 8 percent of the "legal voters" could propose any measure by petition.(fn7) This section was significantly changed in 1980 when Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment which established a more detailed process for placing an initiative on the ballot.
The 1980 amendment clearly established that only registered electors were eligible to sign petitions.(fn8) It also created a different standard for the number of signatures required for an initiated measure to be placed on the general election ballot. The required number of signatures was established as 5 percent of the total number of votes cast for the candidates of both major parties for the office of Secretary of State at the previous general election.(fn9) For the 1992 general election, 49,279 signatures are required to place an initiative on the ballot.
The constitutional amendment adopted in 1980 also established a procedure for the review of proposed initiated statutes and constitutional amendments prior to their submission to the Secretary of State.(fn10)
After the decision has been made to initiate a statutory or constitutional amendment, proponents of initiated measures must comply with a detailed statutory process designed to clarify the language of the initiative.(fn11) As stated recently by the Colorado Supreme Court, this statutory process
The level of understanding of the legislative process and of the relationship between statutes and constitutional provisionspermits proponents of initiatives to benefit from the experience of independent experts in the important process of drafting language that may become part of this state's constitutional or statutory jurisprudence.(fn12)
The first step in the process is the submission of the initiative to the legislative council and the Office of Legislative Legal Services for "review and comment."(fn13) The statute further requires that the legislative service agencies submit their comments no later than two weeks after the submission of the original draft. The comments are limited to the format or contents of the petition and must be made at a meeting open to the public.(fn14)
Before the public meeting, frequently referred to as the "comment hearing," staff analysts and staff attorneys employed by the legislative service agencies prepare a memorandum which contains questions and comments concerning the proposed initiative. The legislative personnel are uniquely qualified to perform this function since they staff legislative committees and draft bills and amendments on a daily basis. The questions and comments developed by the staff are reviewed at the comment hearing. This generally consists of an informal dialogue between the staff members and the proponents of the initiative.
The role of the legislative staff is to pose questions to the proponents which they might not have considered otherwise and to assist the proponents in clarifying the intent of the measure. During the comment hearing, the staff is careful to avoid giving legal advice or to suggest that the proponents change the initiative in any way. The comment hearing, although open to the public, is not a public hearing in the typical sense because testimony...
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