2026 Midterms State GuideColorado

This amendment would give people the constitutional right to buy natural gas for cooking or heating in homes or businesses, and for distributors and utilities to sell natural gas to consumers.

This amendment establishes a constitutional right to hunt, fish, and take fish and wildlife through traditional methods. It excludes endangered species, nongame species, and species that are illegal to hunt under federal law. Supporters describe “traditional methods” as ordinary gear (think: rifles, rods, bows), but critics argue the vague wording (“traditional methods” aren’t defined in the amendment) could be used in court to challenge Colorado's existing ban on things like leghold traps and baiting.

Mail-in ballots currently only require a voter’s signature to verify it’s actually them voting. This amendment changes that by requiring voters casting ballots by mail to provide both their signatures and an identification number. Acceptable forms of identification include: 1) the last four digits of their Social Security number; 2) a Colorado REAL ID number; 3) a Colorado REAL ID driver's license number; or 4) the last four digits of another Colorado identification number meeting federal REAL ID requirements.

This amendment is for everyone making this face 😵‍💫 while reading these ballot measures (and for those of us making this face 😓 trying to write them). It requires ballot questions to be in plain English at no more than an eighth-grade reading level; and prohibits any state statute from mandating language in or around a ballot title that is not in plain language or exceeds an eighth-grade reading level.

This amendment addresses redistricting (the process of redrawing boundary lines on a map that change where and how people vote), requiring any mid-decade redistricting plan to be approved by both the state's independent redistricting commission and the Colorado Supreme Court; and prohibits the approval of maps that have been drawn on purpose to give one political party an advantage.

This amendment establishes a graduated income tax (ranging from 3.7% to 8.4%); removes the uniform tax rate requirement (currently, all Coloradans pay a flat 4.4% income tax rate regardless of income); and allocates the revenue to the Colorado Future's Account, which funds K-12 public school education, health care, and early child care programs. Note: this directly conflicts with Prop 136, which seeks to cap the rate at 4.4%

This initiative toughens Colorado's fentanyl laws in three ways. It raises the felony level and sets mandatory penalties for making, selling, or possessing fentanyl, including possessing less than a gram, which is currently only a misdemeanor. It makes court-ordered treatment required, rather than optional, for the lowest-level fentanyl possession felonies. And it removes the exception that currently keeps some drug possession convictions from counting toward "habitual criminal" status, which triggers steeper sentences.

This measure would require life in prison without parole for anyone convicted of trafficking a child for sexual servitude. Right now that crime is a class 2 felony carrying eight to 24 years.

This initiative would require student athletes to play on the men's or women's team that matches their sex, which the measure defines by biological reproductive systems. It applies to both K-12 and college athletics.

This initiative would bar health care providers from performing surgeries on anyone under 18 that alter biological sex characteristics… what the measure calls "treatment in response to a minor's perception of sex or gender." It would also block state or federal money, Medicaid reimbursement, and insurance coverage from paying for those procedures.

Colorado currently has a flat income tax (so everyone pays the same 4.4% rate on taxable income, regardless of how much they earn). This initiative would freeze that rate into the state constitution, permanently capping it at 4.4% so future legislatures (or voters) couldn't raise it.

Currently, Colorado is required to refund excess money from sales tax revenue on sporting goods and equipment. This initiative would require the state to keep it and spend it on water, land, forest, wildfire prevention, and outdoor recreation purposes.

Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) limits how much revenue the state can keep; anything above the cap gets refunded to taxpayers. This measure raises that cap and directs the surplus, roughly $4.6 billion, to K-12 education: teacher pay, reducing teacher turnover, smaller class sizes, educational programs, and workforce preparation.