This past legislative session, Colorado legislators passed a bill making changes to the state’s citizen ballot initiative process.
House Bill 25-1327 (Modify Statewide Ballot Measure Process), sponsored by Reps. Emily Sirota (D-HD9) and Meg Froelich (D-HD3) and Sen. Kathy Kipp (D-SD14), passed along party lines with Democratic members supporting the bill and Republicans opposed. Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law on June 4, 2025.
The new law took effect upon signing. Although HB 25-1327 does not significantly alter the citizen ballot initiative process, it makes several changes worth noting for future ballot initiative cycles, including this one.
Overview of Important Provisions of HB 25-1327
HB 25-1327 appears designed to make the citizen ballot initiative process easier for Colorado clerks and staff based on lessons learned from prior ballot initiative cycles. Several provisions are noteworthy for both potential proponents and those who may oppose ballot measures.
One key provision of the new law requires proponents of a ballot measure who submit five or more drafts of a similar measure within the same “initiative cycle” to create and provide to the Colorado Title Board a chart describing or visually showing the differences between each draft.
The new law defines an “initiative cycle” as the period beginning 12 days before the first Wednesday in December following a November general election and ending on the third Wednesday in April of the year in which the measure will appear on the ballot. Meaning, for example, that measures appearing on the 2026 General Election ballot must be heard by Title Board between December 2024 and April 2026.
The Title Board is comprised of the secretary of state, the attorney general and the director of the General Assembly’s nonpartisan Office of Legislative Legal Services (OLLS) or their designees. The Title Board does not weigh the merits of a proposed measure but simply determines whether it satisfies Colorado’s single-subject rule for ballot initiatives and assists in drafting a title that is sufficiently descriptive enough to be easily comprehended by voters.
In recent years, several proponents have proposed numerous versions of a particular ballot measure proposal, and this provision is designed so that the Colorado Title Board can more easily decipher the differences between these various versions.
HB 25-1327 also makes changes intended to provide additional information to voters. In one of these alterations, HB 25-1327 tweaks the fiscal impact statement prepared for each ballot measure submitted to the Colorado Title Board. Under current law, the director of research of the Legislative Council must prepare for each proposed measure a “description of the measure’s fiscal impact, including a preliminary estimate of any change in state and local government revenues, expenditures, taxes, or fiscal liabilities if implemented.”
HB 25-1327 now requires that, for measures which propose a tax increase, the director must include a preliminary estimate of the maximum increase in state and local government revenue and spending for the first and final full fiscal year of the proposed tax increase. This will help voters understand exactly how much revenue their tax increase will generate for state and local government spending in the years of the proposed increase.
In another change to provide more information to voters, HB 25-1327 requires ballot measure titles to indicate whether the statutory change or constitutional amendment “modifies, extends, or repeals existing law or creates new law.” Before its passages, ballot measures were simply titled as either a “change to Colorado Revised Statutes” or as an “amendment to the Colorado constitution.” The additional information is likely intended to provide voters with more understanding of the legal impact of a given measure.
HB 25-1327 also adds a reporting requirement for proponents of proposed measures. When a proposed initiative or referendum reaches 75% of the required signatures to appear on the ballot, a representative of the measure must notify the secretary of state, who, in turn, must list the measure on the secretary of state’s website with all measures that have received 75% of the required signatures.
If a measure receives 75% of its required signatures and a representative does not notify the secretary of state, however, the secretary may fine the representative and may refuse to certify the measure on the ballot. This new requirement will help the secretary of state, county clerks, proponents and opponents of proposed measures, and the public at large prepare for which measures are likely to appear on a general election ballot.
Broader Changes to the Landscape of Colorado Election Law
This new law is the latest action following a recent trend of the Colorado General Assembly making changes to Colorado’s election and citizen initiative process. Last year, Gov. Polis signed Senate Bill 24-210, which made significant modifications to the state’s election process by modifying the Uniform Election Code of 1992, the Fair Campaign Practices Act, the Colorado Sunshine Act of 1972 and other election laws.
SB 210 included extensive changes to Colorado’s election process, including:
- lowering the age for young Coloradans to preregister to vote from 16 to 15,
- providing county clerks more authority to independently govern their offices’ election procedures,
- changing some administrative deadlines,
- prohibiting noncitizens and foreign governments and businesses from contributing to ballot issue campaigns, and
- requiring public officials to file disclosure statements with the secretary of state, among other changes.
Notably, SB 210 also included a last-minute amendment directed squarely at the substance of a ballot measure that was placed on the 2024 ballot, demonstrating just how entwined the legislative and ballot measure processes have become over the last several election cycles.
Another important election bill that passed during the 2025 legislative session was Senate Bill 25-1, the Colorado Voting Rights Act, which Gov. Polis signed into law on May 12. The Colorado Voting Rights Act created new protections for voters, including:
- prohibiting activities that may suppress or dilute votes of members of protected classes;
- implementing voting requirements based on gender identity, sexual orientation or status as an incarcerated individual;
- clarifying what identification materials are sufficient for tribal members to vote;
- restricting electioneering activities near polling locations;
- changing some recount procedures; and
- expanding multilanguage ballot access.
The General Assembly also passed two bills this session to change how legislative vacancies are filled. The process of filling vacancies has been scrutinized in recent years as an increasing number of legislators are appointed by party insiders. At the start of the 2025 session, 21 members of the 100-member General Assembly were appointed at some point by vacancy committees, including some who were appointed after members resigned shortly following their reelection. Currently, vacant seats are filled by a small vacancy committee—typically comprised of active party insiders from the district or county—for the entire duration of the scheduled term, up to two years for a House representative or four years for a senator or county commissioner.
House Bill 25-1315 (Vacancies in the General Assembly) and House Bill 25-1319 (County Commissioner Vacancies) altered this process by now requiring that the district with a vacancy hold special elections to fill the seat during the next scheduled general election and expanding the membership of vacancy committees that appoint a replacement member or commissioner until that election can be held. Gov. Polis signed both bills into law.
Between SB 25-1, HB 25-1315, HB 25-1319 and HB 25-1327, the Colorado General Assembly has shown a strong interest in changing Colorado’s election system, including reforming outdated practices and requirements, and expanding access to, transparency of, and public confidence in Colorado’s elections. Given other changes made in recent legislative sessions, it is likely that this trend will continue in future legislative sessions.
Summer Associate Teddy Adams contributed to this alert.
