Cherish your freedom to vote

Cherish your freedom to vote

Nov. 2, 2000

Life In The Legislature
By Mark Larson
State Representative

As I traveled the district discussing the many initiatives and referenda, I was not surprised to find a growing resentment of a process that has lost its intent and focus, that of allowing a statewide popular movement by the people to revise our laws.

Colorado is among 24 states that reserve the right of initiative to the people. Only 5 percent of the voters in the previous election are needed to place either a statutory revision or a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Accordingly, only 62,438 signatures were needed to refer a measure in this election. Colorado has the lowest standard in the country and thus has become a target for special interests. Other states have lower percentages, but those percentages are applied to "all registered voters" as in Massachusetts at 3 percent, or " total population" as in North Dakota at 2 percent.

Complicating this low requirement is the fact that paid circulators, who hardly represent a popular movement within the state, may be employed by any group, or in the case of Doug Bruce, any person, to obtain sufficient signatures. Accordingly, for the very low sum of $35,000 to $40,000, anyone can hire a circulator and potentially place an initiative on the ballot.

Yet another concern we rural folk share is the disproportionate 81 percent of the state registered voters who live between Pueblo and Fort Collins. Many times we have seen the Front Range influence an election that negatively impacted rural communities.

Those who are pushing for change in the initiative process will have much to consider. Simply raising the bar by increasing the percentage of voters that voted in the previous election from 5 percent to say 10 percent or 15 percent is a nice start. There are many options and combinations that could be considered. And importantly, if we are to continue with this discussion, we must keep in focus and protect the people’s ability to have a voice in their government if a significant majority feel that representative government has failed.

Let’s throw out a few "what ifs" for your consideration, focusing only on constitutional amendments.

What if Colorado were to implement a partitioning requirement mandating signatures from 10 percent of the voters in the previous election in 75 percent of the counties, or even 50 percent of the counties, to get on the ballot? Or perhaps a simply majority of voters in a simple majority of counties to pass? It is interesting that 42 percent of the states allowing initiatives have partitioning requirements. This would certainly help with the urban/rural dilemma.
What if we required a two/thirds majority of voters to pass an amendment? The legislature must obtain this super majority to refer an amendment to the voters so why not just pass that same requirement on through?
What if, as in Wyoming, we would say that "circulators may not be paid based upon the number of signatures gathered"? Or as in the case of several states, circulators must be registered voters in the district in which they are obtaining signatures? Does this not assure that an initiative would then be a "popular movement" as opposed to Doug Bruce writing a check for the opportunity to change our State's Constitution! This concept worked well for the teachers on Amendment 23!
So that the people do not feel that their rights are being diminished by these changes, what if the people in each county were allowed to petition initiatives onto the county ballots. Colorado is one of only a few states that has not reserved petitioning rights at the county level.

My sense is that there will be an effort in the next session to consider changes to the initiative process. Voters should become informed and conversant as the discussion on this important constitutional right comes to the fore of legislative review.

Special thanks to Allan Bunch of Pagosa Springs for providing all of the research used in this article.

Thanks to those who cherish their freedom and vote!