Colorado: Lawmakers to again consider raising threshold for ballot measures

Tue, Apr 22 2014 — Source: Grand Junction Sentinel

State lawmakers will try once again to place a measure onto the ballot to change the way ballot measures get onto the ballot.

Rep. Lois Court said she’s hopeful this time Colorado voters will agree that something needs to be done to protect the state’s Constitution from contradictory proposals that oftentimes aren’t written well, or have far-reaching unintended consequences.

The Denver Democrat, who is one of a long line of lawmakers regardless of political ilk to attempt such changes, hopes this effort will be more successful than previous attempts.

Unlike those efforts, including Referendum O in 2008 that lost by less than 3 percentage points, Court’s new idea would make only a few changes, and focuses only on proposed constitutional amendments.

Her measure, House Concurrent Resolution 2, would alter petition-gathering laws, requiring an equal amount coming from each of the state’s seven congressional districts and doubling the amount of signatures needed currently to get onto the ballot.

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