Amendment 71: requirements for initiated constitutional amendments

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? what would it do?

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what is the current law?

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why did the proponents want to change the current system?

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​how will it impact Colorado's water community?

Amendment 71 has two basic parts: (1) an increased signature requirement, and (2) a higher bar for changing the Colorado Constitution.
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• Colorado law requires gathering nearly 100,000 signatures to place a Constitutional amendment on the ballot. This initiative would require that those signatures be collected from each state senate district across the state. Specifically, proponents of a Constitutional amendment would need to collect signatures from 2% of registered voters in each of the state's 35 senate districts to place the initiative on the ballot.
• Once on the ballot, the bar would be set higher to pass a Constitutional amendment compared to a law change. In order to amend the state Constitution, ballot issues would need 55% of the voters to pass instead of a simple majority.

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The current law on citizen initiatives also has two basic parts. However, the hurdles in each part are lower than the proposed initiative:

• For any change, whether statutory or a Constitutional amendment, proponents of that change must submit signatures equaling only 5% of the previous Secretary of State vote total to place the initiative on the ballot. As of 2015, that meant obtaining about 98,000 signatures.​
• Once on the ballot, a simple majority (over 50%) will pass both a statutory change and a Constitutional amendment.
  

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Our state Constitution should serve as our foundation, similar to the U.S. Constitution. However, our state requires the same initiative process to amend our Constitution as our state laws. This framework has made Colorado's ballot and Constitution among the most easily changed in the country. This leads to the proposal of a number of amendments that, at times, conflict with one another.

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If enacted, Initiative #96 would protect Colorado's Constitution from future amendments that could harm the future and sustainability of Colorado water law. If an initiative like #96 is not enacted, water in Colorado could one day be threatened by a Public Trust Initiative, the very thing that the Colorado Water Stewardship Project aims to safeguard. Initiative #96 will help protect Colorado water law.