John Tytus

Colorado 2026 ballot measures

Ballots were mailed Oct 2 through 9. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov 3.

Fourteen statewide measures, one page each: what it does, the Blue Book arguments, what it costs, who is paying on each side, and where the parties stand.

Colorado 2026: what voters should know about the ballot measures

How ballot measures work in Colorado

A measure reaches the statewide ballot in one of two ways: citizens collect petition signatures, or the legislature refers it.

Before anyone collects signatures, the state Title Board writes the measure's ballot title; the board is made up of representatives from the Attorney General's office, the Secretary of State's office and the legislature's legal office. For 2026, nearly 200 initiatives were proposed, and 13 qualified by getting a title and gathering 124,238 signatures from registered voters.

The legislature refers a measure with a simple majority in both the House and the Senate, and the governor's signature is not needed. A legislative referral that changes the constitution needs two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers.

On the ballot, a citizen measure that changes the constitution is an "Amendment" numbered 1 to 99, and one that changes statutes is a "Proposition" numbered 100 to 199. A statutory measure the legislature refers is a "Proposition" with a double letter, such as NN.

Vote thresholds. A constitutional amendment needs at least 55 percent of the votes cast, unless it only repeals something, in which case it needs a simple majority. Statutory measures pass with a simple majority. The Blue Book lists Amendment 87, the graduated income tax, as passing with a majority vote.

What happens after a measure passes. A statute approved by voters can later be changed by the legislature, with the governor's approval, without going back to voters. A constitutional amendment can only be changed by another vote of the people, although the legislature may pass laws that implement it as long as they do not conflict with it. If two measures that both pass conflict, Colorado law resolves the conflict in favor of the measure with the most yes votes.

TABOR. The Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, a 1992 constitutional amendment, limits how much revenue the state can collect each year; the limit is the prior year's limit adjusted for inflation and population growth, and voters can let the state keep money above it. Revenue above the limit must be refunded to taxpayers. A 2021 law, House Bill 21-1321, requires a citizen initiative that cuts state tax revenue to open its ballot title with set wording about the cut. A citizen initiative that raises or lowers state taxes must describe the change and its effect on taxpayers in its title.

The voter guide. The Blue Book, the official ballot guide, is written by the legislature's nonpartisan research staff and mailed to every registered voter household under a 1994 voter-approved law. Each analysis describes the measure and gives the major arguments for and against it.

When to vote. Ballots are mailed to all registered voters between Oct. 2 and Oct. 9, 2026. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.

This year's ballot

There are 14 statewide measures: six change the constitution, seven change state statutes, and one changes both. Thirteen were put on the ballot by citizens; only Proposition NN came from the legislature. That is the second-most citizen initiatives in state history, and the most in a single election since 1912.

Two qualified measures, on labor unions and road funding, were withdrawn under compromise agreements, and the Colorado Supreme Court blocked several proposals to redraw the congressional map. Each measure's sheet in this folder has the detail.

The legislature and the governor

Toward ballot measures in general. House Bill 25-1327 passed on a party-line vote, Democrats for and Republicans against, and Gov. Jared Polis signed it, according to a Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law-firm client alert. The session law shows approval June 4, 2025. It requires campaigns to notify the Secretary of State at 75 percent of the required signatures, and the Secretary of State then lists the measure. Amendment 85 on this year's ballot would bar laws that require citizen initiatives to carry title language interfering with its plain-language standard; titles of measures the legislature refers are not covered by that bar.

In the final days of the 2026 session, Democratic lawmakers passed a bill to temporarily lower the taxes that fund roads, effective only if the road funding initiative, Initiative 175, passed; Polis signed it, as reported by the Post Independent (Robert Tann, Aug. 27, 2026). The initiative's backers then announced a deal with lawmakers and Attorney General Phil Weiser, the Democratic nominee for governor, and said they plan to withdraw it, according to the same report. Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, a Democrat, said lawmakers agreed to refer their own roads measure to voters in November 2027, according to the same report.

Toward this year's measures. Proposition NN passed the legislature on mostly party-line votes, with nearly all Democrats in favor and Republicans unanimously opposed, and was referred in May, as reported by Colorado Newsline (Chase Woodruff, Sept. 28, 2026). It passed with 65 of 100 legislators, all Democrats, as reported by Westword (Hannah Metzger, Sept. 16, 2026).

In January, before NN was referred, Polis did not commit to supporting a measure to raise the TABOR cap, saying "I'm happy to look into proposals," as reported by the Post Independent (Robert Tann, Jan. 20, 2026). No later public position from Polis on Proposition NN was found as of Sept 30, 2026.

Polis opposes Amendment 87, saying most new revenue would come from small and medium-sized businesses and it would hurt the state's economy, as reported by CBS News Colorado (Shaun Boyd, Sept. 30, 2026). He has called it "bad policy that would destroy our economy," as reported by Governing (Jule Pattison-Gordon, Sept. 28, 2026). He has raised the possibility that if 87 and Proposition 136 both pass, 87 cuts taxes below $500,000 while 136 keeps the 4.4 percent top rate, reducing revenue, according to the same article, which says others disagree and a court would likely decide it.

On the subject of Amendment 81, Democrats in the legislature have passed a series of bills limiting how state and local law enforcement can work with federal immigration authorities, as reported by The Colorado Sun (Jesse Paul, Sept. 29, 2026).

On Amendment 81 and on 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136 and 137: no position from the governor or the legislature as a body found as of Sept 30, 2026; the Polis comment above concerns how 87 and 136 interact.

Party positions are on each measure's sheet.

Sources