Backers of two anti-trans ballot initiatives failed to report their payments to a canvassing company hired to gather petition signatures, according to a campaign finance complaint recently filed with the Colorado Secretary of State.
The complaint was filed Friday by Barb Cardell, who is also the program director at Positive Women’s Network.
“Opponents of Initiatives 109 and 110 informed me of the proponents’ public admission that they paid circulators and failure to report those payments as expenditures or in-kind contributions,” the complaint reads. [Editor’s note: Now that the ballot has been finalized, the initiatives have been renamed to Propositions 134 and 135.]
The initiatives, which would respectively ban trans students from playing sports with their gender and prohibit medical procedures “for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics” on minors, are backed by Protect Kids Colorado (PKC). The Colorado Times Recorder previously reported that PKC leader Kevin Lundberg said the group was paying a signature gathering firm to bolster their mostly-volunteer effort; Taylor Petition Management was officially registered to gather signatures for the initiatives.
“We’ve been supplementing with some paid signatures, but very few, because it’s very expensive,” said Lundberg. “But we knew we needed that extra cushion. I’m quite confident we’re raising well over 125,000 signatures on our own, but we need more for that cushion.”
In reference to CTR’s reporting, the complaint states, “Protect Kids Colorado admits it paid circulators even though Protect Kids Colorado has not disclosed such payments or in-kind contributions on its periodic campaign finance filings.”
PKC Executive Director Erin Lee also obliquely referenced that the group was paying for signatures, in footage of a PKC Zoom call obtained by the Colorado Times Recorder.
“We are for the most part an all-volunteer army,” Lee said to fellow organizers and volunteers. “And again when people said this isn’t possible, this isn’t something you can do, the other petition companies laughed at us and really have worked against us in some cases, and said it’s just not something that can be done. And we did it anyway.” [CTR emphasis]
The complaint also notes that the initiatives are supported by a second issue committee, Protect Our Children, of which Republican strategist Michele Austin is the registered agent. Austin is also one of the representatives for Initiative #109, alongside Lee. Protect Our Children has also not reported payments to Taylor Petition Management – or, for that matter, anyone else. Since its registration in August 2025, the issue committee has reported $0 in either contributions or expenditures at this time.
Neither committee has reported in-kind contributions by a third party to pay for signature gathering, or filed a statement “of dates and hours worked by paid circulators, as well as the gross wages paid for such work,” as required by state law, the complaint reads.
In undercover footage from a 2013 training for signature gatherers working to recall state Senate President John Morse, an individual identifying himself as Tracy Taylor of Taylor Petition Management told signature gatherers for Kennedy Enterprises, “This is what we do for a living. We travel around the country, we go from city to city, state to state, we put issues and candidates on the ballot for basically anybody who has money.”
PKC leaders have spoken previously on the difficulty of securing funding for a far-right culture war campaign in a blue state.
READ MORE: How Christian-Right Activists Got Anti-Trans Initiatives on Colorado’s Ballot
Edited 9/18 to clarify details of Prop. 134.
