To keep and bear arms. To be tried by a jury of one’s peers. To be secure against unlawful search and seizure. To party. The list of rights which are seen as universal and inalienable has been in flux since Locke and his contemporaries first hammered out the concept in the 17th and 18th centuries. This year, a number of ballot initiatives seek to make additions to Colorado’s own unique list of rights.
Colorado’s November ballot is almost finalized. As of today, ten initiatives are set to bulk up the ballots Coloradans will cast this fall. While those initiatives might look like unrelated efforts by groups of concerned citizens, in reality most of them have been sponsored and funded by billionaire-backed right-wing organization Advance Colorado, which specializes in using Colorado’s ballot process to change state laws in ways the Democratic-majority legislature would not. Soon, they will start the process of trying to trick voters into supporting them.
Last month, Kristi Burton Brown, executive vice president of the conservative policy organization Advance Colorado, appeared on a conservative radio show to discuss the alleged dangers of the graduated income tax, as proposed in ballot initiative 195, while also promoting Advance Colorado’s ballot initiative 232, which would cap the state’s tax rate at its current level of 4.4%.
While most of the political world is laser-focused on November 2026, one Colorado campaign already has its sights set on 2028, when it hopes to usher in a seismic change to the way the state conducts elections. More than two years ahead of the due date, Courageous Colorado’s push for nonpartisan primary elections is conducting listening sessions, working to recruit influencers, and has already aired a television commercial. And though it’s being billed as a way of increasing turnout and decreasing polarization, there’s reason to suspect that Courageous Colorado’s push for nonpartisan primaries is not as altruistic as it seems.
Colorado voters are no strangers to ballot initiatives: every two years, at least a handful of them appear on our ballots, giving voters a direct say in changing the state’s laws. It’s the process that gave us things like paid family and medical leave – which came from an initiative created and championed by former Rep. Matt Gray and the late Sen. Faith Winter – and recreational cannabis, and it’s the reason our November ballots are usually about eight pages long.
The Colorado Times Recorder will host an online panel and fundraiser on Tuesday, May 12, to discuss its recent investigation (and new website) that illuminates how wealthy conservative donors, like GOP billionaire Phil Anschutz, have poured millions of dollars into a network of dark-money groups focused on public relations and ballot measures.
The biggest stars in the world are currently either bound for or departing from the small city of Indio, California, where the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival kicked off over the weekend and will continue through next Sunday. The festival, better known simply as ‘Coachella,’ draws annual crowds in the hundreds of thousands and gross revenues greater than $100 million, making it one of the highest-profile and most successful live music events in the world.
The year is 2024 and your Colorado ballot has just arrived in the mail. The envelope is thick, another year’s ballot loaded not just with candidates, but with state and local initiatives. You fill in the bubbles next to the candidates you like, take a deep breath, then turn to the page where the initiatives start.
Last year, paid signature gatherers were found to be misleading voters in left-leaning areas of Colorado while canvassing for Initiative 95, a proposed constitutional amendment that would force local law enforcement to work more closely with ICE. Now, a leader of the conservative dark money group that created Initiative 95 is citing those deceptively gathered signatures as an indicator of support from the left.
Signature gatherers outside of grocery stores and other public spaces are a common sight in the year before an election — but can you trust what circulators tell you?
