State Ballot Issues – A Look Ahead

The Colorado Legislative Council Ballot and Blue Book webpage has a link to the initiatives currently being considered for the 2011 and 2012 ballots or you can go directly to the list via the link below.
http://www.leg.state.co.us/LCS/Initiative%20Referendum/1112InitRefr.nsf/dac421ef79ad243487256def0067c1de


Senate Concurrent Resolution 001 would have placed a referred measure proposing changes to the initiative process on the November ballot. A disagreement between the House and the Senate on the supermajority percentage required for the legislature to change or repeal a statutory change precluded its passage.

If SCR 11-001 had made it to the ballot and been approved by the voters, it would have
1) increased the percentage of citizen votes required to pass new constitutional amendments
2) allowed constitutional amendments passed prior to 2013 to be repealed with a majority of citizen votes
3) required a minimum percent of signatures on citizen initiatives from each congressional district
4) required a supermajority vote of the legislature to change or repeal a citizen-initiated statutory change for 3 years after it becomes effective

SCR 11-001 could yet reappear as a citizen initiative. In 2008 Referendum O had some similar goals but failed at the ballot box. Some supporters of Referendum O blame its defeat on the lengthy ballot; it was hard to get the voters to pay attention to it, and it competed with other ballot issues for campaign funds.

Click below to see the full text of SCR 11-001.
http://www.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2011A/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/65B390DB5A87F561872578080080066D?Open&file=SCR001_rer.pdf