(Colorado Newsline) As many as nine citizen-initiated ballot measures could be headed to Colorado voters in November, but eight others have missed the cut following a Monday deadline for proponents to submit signature petitions.

To qualify for the ballot, backers of a proposed statutory initiative must submit 124,238 valid signatures from registered voters to the Colorado secretary of state’s office. Proposed constitutional amendments must additionally collect signatures from at least 2 percent of voters in each of the state’s 35 senate districts.

As of Tuesday, three measures had been formally certified to appear on the November ballot.

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Initiative 50, which qualified for the ballot last October, would enact a 4 percent cap on annual property tax growth. It’s backed by Advance Colorado, a conservative “dark money” nonprofit that has spent millions to influence state elections in recent years but which is not required to disclose its donors.

Initiative 89, which qualified for the ballot in May, would enshrine the right to abortion in the Colorado Constitution. It’s backed by Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom, a coalition of abortion rights groups and other progressive organizations. As a constitutional measure, it needs 55 percent of the vote to pass.

Initiative 91 proposes a ban on trophy hunting of mountain lions, bobcats or lynx, and was certified for the ballot last week. Proponents with the group Cats Aren’t Trophies said in a press release that such hunting is “inhumane and needless,” while the Sportsmen’s Alliance, a hunting and trapping advocacy group, denounced the measure as the work of out-of-state “animal extremists.”

To date, proposed initiatives have been numbered sequentially according to when they were filed with the state’s Initiative Title Setting Review Board, commonly known as the Title Board. More than 300 proposed initiatives were filed in the 2024 election cycle, the vast majority of which were denied a title by the board or withdrawn by proponents. Measures that qualify for the ballot will be re-numbered in sequential order beginning with Amendment 79 for constitutional amendments, and Proposition 127 for statutory initiatives.

Awaiting verification

Six other ballot measures are awaiting verification by the secretary of state’s office after proponents submitted petition signatures over the last two weeks.

Kent Thiry, an influential Colorado megadonor, and fellow reformers want to replace partisan primaries with a single “all-candidate” primary for each state and federal office, and enact a top-four, ranked choice voting system to decide general elections. The campaign in support of Thiry’s election overhaul plan, Colorado Voters First, said last week that it had submitted 213,000 signatures in support of Initiative 310. The measure is among a host of similar initiatives being pushed by Unite America, the nonprofit Thiry co-chairs, in at least a half dozen states this year.

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Unite America backed a successful effort to establish such a system in Alaska in 2020, and the group touts its model as a cure for partisan polarization and political dysfunction. Thiry, former CEO of Denver-based dialysis services company DaVita, has previously bankrolled campaigns to open Colorado’s primaries to unaffiliated voters and establish independent redistricting commissions.

Also awaiting signature verification is Initiative 145, which would allow certain veterinary services to be practiced by associates without a full state-issued veterinarian’s license in order to address what it calls a severe veterinary workforce shortage.

Four other initiatives waiting for the secretary of state’s signature review are among those backed by Advance Colorado, including two relating to criminal justice and law enforcement. Initiative 112, a “truth in sentencing” measure, would make people convicted of certain violent crimes ineligible for parole until they have served at least 85 percent of their sentences. Initiative 157 would make a one-time appropriation of $350 million to a new police officer training fund under the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

In a report released Tuesday in support of Initiative 112, Advance Colorado falsely claimed that the U.S. is “in the middle of a massive rise in violent crime.” In fact, rates of both violent and property crimes have trended downward in Coloradoand nationally since 2022.

Another Advance Colorado measure, Initiative 138, would enact a statutory “right to school choice,” with language that aims to protect “neighborhood, charter, private and home schools, open enrollment options, and future innovations in education.” The group submitted signatures in support of the measure on July 24.

A final proposal from the group, Initiative 108, would cut property tax assessment rates beginning next year. Advance Colorado said last month that it had submitted “nearly 200,000” signatures in support of the measure.

A nonpartisan state fiscal analysis estimates that Initiative 108’s property tax cut would blow a $3 billion hole in state and local budgets beginning in 2025, a shortfall that would rise in subsequent years, especially if Initiative 50 is passed alongside it.

Missed the cut

Eight proposed initiatives formally expired Monday when proponents failed to submit petitions before the deadline.

Two of the failed measures were backed by a conservative anti-LGBTQ organization, Protect Kids Colorado. Initiative 142 would have required Colorado public schools to notify parents when their child shows signs of “experiencing gender incongruence,” while Initiative 160 aimed to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in “a sport or athletic event designated as being for females, women or girls.”

The group announced in a press conference outside the state Capitol on Monday that it had fallen short of the signature threshold. Erin Lee, a spokesperson for the group, said the campaign “brought people together and started conversations.”

“We are committed to upholding biological truth, protecting children and safeguarding girls’ spaces,” Lee said. “We stand firm in defending parents inalienable right to care for their own children.”

Mardi Moore, executive director of LGBTQ rights group Rocky Mountain Equality, said in a press release that the measures were “out of step” with Colorado values.

“They were put forward by right-wing extremists and would have threatened our collective freedom,” Moore said. “The fact that they could not get enough signatures to be placed on the ballot shows they lack support from everyday Coloradans.”

Also missing the cut were three initiatives filed by a group of conservative activists opposed to the sweeping election reform plan backed Thiry. The three counter-measures, all of which were filed by GOP activists Linda Good and Candice Stutzriem, would have enacted a blanket statewide ban on ranked choice voting, protected ballot access through the party assembly process and prohibited unaffiliated voters from voting in party primaries.

Proponents of three other initiatives failed to submit signatures before the Monday deadline: Initiative 144, which would have allowed licensed veterinarians to offer telehealth services; Initiative 147, which would have prohibited sheriffs from denying concealed carry permits to people who lawfully use marijuana; and Initiative 284, a constitutional measure that aimed to enact strict limitations on fees the state uses to fund transportation projects.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.