2026 Ballot Measures
Recommended Votes on Statewide Ballot Measures (Summary)
Vote YES on Amendments 81, 82, 83, 84, 85 and 86;
NO on Amendment 87;
NO on Proposition NN;
YES on Propositions 132, 133, 134, 135 and 136;
NO on Proposition 137;
and NO on Ballot Issue 7A.
See below for details...
Introduction
The November 3, 2026 election gives Colorado voters the opportunity to make important decisions about public safety, energy freedom, election integrity, constitutional rights, taxation, government spending, and the protection of children.
These recommendations are grounded in several basic principles: individual liberty, personal responsibility, public safety, election integrity, limited government, fiscal restraint, protection of taxpayers, and keeping government accountable to the people.
Colorado should protect constitutional rights, make elections easier to understand and verify, support law enforcement, protect children, preserve taxpayer protections, and resist policies that create permanently higher taxes or allow government to retain money that would otherwise be returned to taxpayers.
AMENDMENT 81 — YES
Law Enforcement Communication with Federal Authorities
Amendment 81 would require Colorado law-enforcement agencies to communicate with federal immigration authorities in specified circumstances involving people charged with certain crimes when their lawful immigration status is unknown or they are known not to be lawfully present.
Why Vote YES?
Public safety must come first.
When a person is arrested or charged with a serious or violent crime, law enforcement should have the ability—and the responsibility—to determine what information is legally available concerning that person's immigration status.
The purpose is not to replace state or local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities. The purpose is to ensure that potentially important information is communicated to the federal government when the circumstances require it.
A criminal justice system should not intentionally operate with information silos when public safety is at stake.
Position: Colorado law enforcement should cooperate with federal authorities when serious criminal charges and immigration-status questions intersect. Vote YES.
AMENDMENT 82 — YES
Right to Purchase and Sell Natural Gas
Amendment 82 would establish constitutional protections for consumers to purchase natural gas for home or business use and for distributors and utilities to sell it.
Why Vote YES?
Colorado families and businesses should be able to choose how they heat their homes, cook their food, and operate their businesses.
Natural gas is an important energy source for households, restaurants, manufacturers and other businesses. Government should not unnecessarily eliminate consumer choice by prohibiting access to a lawful energy source.
Energy policy should be based on reliability, affordability and consumer choice—not on forcing every Coloradan into one preferred technology.
Position: Protect consumer choice and energy freedom. Vote YES.
AMENDMENT 83 — YES
Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish
Amendment 83 would establish a constitutional right to hunt and fish using traditional methods and declare hunting and fishing the state's preferred method of managing wildlife populations.
Why Vote YES?
Hunting and fishing are important parts of Colorado's outdoor heritage and contribute to wildlife management and conservation.
Wildlife management should rely on effective, proven practices and the people who spend time in Colorado's outdoors. Hunters and anglers also contribute financially to conservation through licenses, equipment purchases and related economic activity.
Placing these rights in the Colorado Constitution provides an additional safeguard against future government efforts to unnecessarily restrict lawful hunting and fishing.
Position: Protect Colorado's outdoor heritage, individual liberty and responsible wildlife management. Vote YES.
AMENDMENT 84 — YES
Mail Ballot Voter Identification
Amendment 84 would establish additional voter-identification requirements for mail ballots while preserving an opportunity for voters to correct deficiencies.
Why Vote YES?
Every eligible voter should be able to vote—and every legitimate vote should be protected.
Colorado conducts elections primarily through mail ballots. That makes strong verification procedures especially important.
Requiring voter identification information provides voters and election officials with another tool for confirming that a ballot belongs to the individual who submitted it. Importantly, a ballot problem should not automatically mean the voter loses the opportunity to have the ballot counted; the amendment provides for correction of specified deficiencies.
Election integrity and voter access are not opposites. A trustworthy election system should provide both.
Position: Secure the ballot while protecting legitimate voters' opportunity to correct errors. Vote YES.
AMENDMENT 85 — YES
Plain-Language Ballot Questions
Amendment 85 would establish constitutional requirements concerning the language used in ballot questions.
Why Vote YES?
Citizens should be able to understand what they are voting on.
Ballot measures can change the Constitution, tax policy, criminal law, spending authority and other fundamental aspects of government. Voters should not have to hire an attorney or decipher complicated legal language merely to determine what a ballot question does.
Plain language promotes informed consent by the electorate.
The people—not lawyers, politicians or bureaucrats—ultimately decide Colorado's laws and Constitution.
Position: Ballot questions should be understandable to ordinary voters. Vote YES.
AMENDMENT 86 — YES
Congressional Redistricting
Amendment 86 addresses the circumstances under which congressional districts can be redrawn outside the normal redistricting process.
Why Vote YES?
Congressional districts should not become political footballs that can be manipulated whenever political control changes.
Colorado already has a constitutional redistricting process. Changing congressional districts in the middle of a decade should require a compelling reason rather than becoming a tool for whichever political party temporarily controls state government.
Stable districts provide voters with greater certainty and reduce the temptation for politicians to manipulate district boundaries for partisan advantage.
This is fundamentally a matter of protecting voters from political gamesmanship.
Position: Congressional districts should not be casually redrawn in the middle of the decade for partisan purposes. Vote YES.
AMENDMENT 87 — NO
Graduated Income Tax
Amendment 87 would replace Colorado's current uniform income-tax structure with a graduated system and increase state taxes by approximately $2.7 billion annually under the ballot title. The proposal would establish rates reaching 8.4% for higher levels of taxable income.
Why Vote NO?
Colorado's current flat income-tax structure provides predictability for individuals and businesses.
Amendment 87 would move Colorado toward a highly graduated income-tax system and authorize substantially greater state taxation.
Higher tax rates do not simply affect wealthy individuals. They can affect investment, entrepreneurship, business decisions, compensation, and economic growth.
Most importantly, the amendment would fundamentally change Colorado's tax structure by replacing a single rate with multiple rates reaching substantially above today's 4.4% rate.
Colorado should compete for businesses and taxpayers rather than continually expanding the government's claim on their income.
Position: Reject a large tax increase and preserve Colorado's competitive flat-tax structure. Vote NO.
PROPOSITION NN — NO
Keep and Spend Money for Education and Other Purposes
Proposition NN would change Colorado's spending framework by permitting the state to retain revenue that would otherwise be subject to TABOR limitations and refunds, with a significant portion directed toward K-12 education.
Why Vote NO?
Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights exists to ensure that taxpayers—not government—retain control over excess tax collections.
Proposition NN would weaken that principle by allowing the state to retain additional revenue rather than return it through TABOR mechanisms.
A Common Sense Institute analysis estimates that taxpayers and local governments could lose approximately $850.9 million in TABOR refunds through FY2028 under the measure.
The argument that the state is not technically raising tax rates misses the central issue: money that otherwise would be returned to taxpayers would instead remain under government control.
Colorado can and should fund important priorities through the normal budget process without permanently weakening taxpayer protections.
Position: Protect TABOR and taxpayers' right to receive refunds when government collects more than it is permitted to spend. Vote NO.
PROPOSITION 132 — YES
Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes
Proposition 132 is titled “Increase Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes.”
Why Vote YES?
Fentanyl has devastated communities and families across Colorado.
People who knowingly traffic dangerous quantities of fentanyl should face serious consequences. The law should distinguish between people struggling with addiction and those who deliberately profit from distributing a deadly substance.
A comprehensive response requires both accountability and treatment.
The state should pursue a system in which serious traffickers face meaningful punishment while people suffering from addiction have access to effective treatment and recovery services.
Position: Hold fentanyl traffickers accountable while expanding meaningful treatment and recovery opportunities. Vote YES.
PROPOSITION 133 — YES
Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor (Protect Kids Colorado)
Proposition 133 would increase the penalty for human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude to life imprisonment without parole. The current sentencing range is substantially lower.
Why Vote YES?
Children are not commodities.
Anyone who knowingly traffics a child for sexual servitude commits an exceptionally serious crime that destroys lives and families.
Colorado's criminal justice system should send an unmistakable message that exploiting children for sexual purposes will result in the strongest available punishment.
The priority should be protecting victims and permanently incapacitating predators who commit the most horrific offenses against children.
Position: Protect children and impose severe penalties on those who traffic them for sexual exploitation. Vote YES.
PROPOSITION 134 — YES
Male and Female Participation in School and Collegiate Sports (Protect Kids Colorado)
Proposition 134 addresses participation in school and collegiate sports and establishes statutory definitions and team-designation requirements based on sex.
Why Vote YES?
Girls deserve a fair opportunity to compete in athletic programs.
Sex differences can matter in competitive athletics, particularly in sports involving strength, speed and physical performance.
The purpose of school sports is to provide students with fair competition, educational opportunities and a chance to develop discipline and teamwork.
Protecting female athletic opportunities does not require hostility toward anyone. It requires establishing clear rules that preserve competitive fairness.
Position: Maintain fair competition and protect opportunities for female athletes. Vote YES.
PROPOSITION 135 — YES
Prohibit Certain Surgeries on Minors (Protect Kids Colorado)
Proposition 135 would prohibit health-care professionals from knowingly performing specified surgeries on minors for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics and would restrict public funding for specified procedures.
Why Vote YES?
Children require special protection when decisions may have permanent and life-changing consequences.
Major irreversible medical interventions should be approached with extraordinary caution when the patient is a minor.
The state has an important responsibility to protect children from irreversible procedures that they may not fully understand and whose long-term consequences may affect them throughout adulthood.
The measure reflects the principle that protecting children should take precedence over political or ideological pressure.
Position: Protect minors from irreversible surgical interventions related to sex or gender. Vote YES.
PROPOSITION 136 — YES
Income Tax Rate Limit
Proposition 136 would limit Colorado's individual and corporate income-tax rates to 4.4%, the current rate, beginning in the specified implementation period.
Why Vote YES?
Colorado should not replace a predictable tax system with an ever-increasing income-tax structure.
A 4.4% ceiling provides taxpayers and businesses with greater certainty and establishes a clear constitutional or statutory guardrail against higher rates, depending on the interaction with other measures.
Proposition 136 is particularly important because it directly addresses the competing tax policy represented by Amendment 87.
Under Colorado's election rules, if conflicting provisions are both approved, the conflicting provisions are resolved according to which measure receives the greater number of affirmative votes.
Position: Keep Colorado's income-tax rate at or below 4.4%. Vote YES.
PROPOSITION 137 — NO
Sporting Goods Sales Tax Revenue for Conservation
Proposition 137 would direct approximately $175 million per year in existing sales-tax revenue from sporting goods toward conservation, wildfire mitigation, outdoor recreation and related purposes by exempting the revenue from TABOR limitations.
Why Vote NO?
Conservation and wildfire mitigation are legitimate priorities. The question is who controls the money.
Proposition 137 would take an estimated $175 million annually out of the revenue stream subject to TABOR calculations and prevent that money from being available for potential taxpayer refunds or ordinary state budgeting.
This is not primarily a question about whether conservation is worthwhile. It is a question about whether government should be permitted to carve revenues out of TABOR protections one program at a time.
Colorado should prioritize conservation and wildfire mitigation through the normal appropriations process while preserving the taxpayer protections voters established in TABOR.
Position: Support conservation, but do not weaken TABOR to fund it. Vote NO.
BALLOT ISSUE 7A — NO
Front Range Passenger Rail / Colorado Connector
Ballot Issue 7A concerns funding for the Front Range Passenger Rail District and the proposed Colorado Connector passenger-rail system.
The measure would impose a new 0.333% sales and use tax within the district, estimated to generate approximately $295 million annually, and would also permit substantial borrowing., and would also permit substantial borrowing.
Why Vote NO?
Colorado taxpayers should demand a clear demonstration of need, cost, ridership, financing and long-term operating requirements before approving another major tax-supported transportation project.
The proposed system has an estimated multibillion-dollar long-term construction cost, with substantial future operating expenses.
The fact that the tax is described as a fraction of a penny per dollar does not change the reality that it is a new tax imposed on purchases within the district.
Government should first demonstrate that existing transportation resources are being used efficiently and that the complete financial obligations of the project are sustainable.
Position: Reject a new sales tax and additional debt for the Colorado Connector. Vote NO.
Conclusion
These recommendations are based on a simple standard: government should protect citizens, protect children, protect the integrity of elections, preserve individual freedom, and remain accountable to taxpayers.
Colorado can pursue public safety without abandoning due process, support conservation without dismantling TABOR, improve education without permanently surrendering taxpayer refunds, and maintain a strong economy without imposing dramatically higher income-tax rates.
The November ballot offers voters a direct opportunity to determine the direction of Colorado policy.
Vote YES for freedom, accountability, public safety and taxpayer protections.
Vote NO on higher taxes, TABOR carve-outs and unnecessary government expansion.