Raise the Bar Colorado initiated an amendment that would make it difficult to change the Colorado Constitution. Amendment 71 imposes a ìdistribution requirement for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments.î It requires that any group or individual introducing an amendment collect petition signatures from across the entire state; and any state constitutional amendment that makes the ballot must pass with 55 percent of the vote.Under current law, a state constitutional amendment can qualify for the November elections with signatures collected from 5 percent of the total number of votes cast in the previous general election, or between 75,000 and 100,000 signatures, depending on voter turnout. The ballot measure can pass with 50 percent plus one vote in the general election.Amendment 71 would change the amendment process in two ways. First, signatures would have to be collected from 2 percent of registered voters in each of Colorado’s 35 state senate districts. Second, amendments that make it to the general election ballot would have to pass with a 55-percent super-majority.ìRequiring signatures from across the state ensures the real will of the people is heard,î said Dan Gibbs, co-chair of Raise the Bar and a Summit County commissioner. ìAll of Colorado wants and deserves a voice in the process of amending the state’s constitution; and, when the voters approve Raise the Bar in November, they will finally have one.îProponents and endorsers of the amendment include all living former governors and the current governor, as well as Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers and a former Springs mayor, Mary Lou Makepeace, according to a press release from Raise the Bar.Opponents of the amendment include the ìDenver Postî editorial board. ìMeeting that 35-district test would be a Herculean effort,î as stated in the Sept. 17 editorial, ìColorado’s Raise the Bar initiative gets it wrong.îThe editorial also states that ìanother problem with the 35-district requirement is that a single district would be able to block a desired measure. Imagine if the original backers of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights had had to collect valid signatures in every Boulder district.îAccording to the Colorado Secretary of State office, $600,000 to Raise the Bar came from the oil-and-gas-interest organization, Vital for Colorado.Ben Markus wrote the following in an article, ìOil And Gas Industry Shifts Cash To ‘Raise The Bar’ Ballot Measure,î posted Sept. 20 on Colorado Public Radioís website: ìOn Sept. 8, about 10 days after fracking restrictions failed to make the ballot, Protecting Colorado’s Environment, Economy and Energy Independence contributed $1 million†to Raise the Bar Ö . On the same day, the drilling industry’s committee†changed its stated purpose with the Secretary of State’s office†to explicitly state its support for Amendment 71.
