Colorado - Our Democracy 2020
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Protect our Constitution

Over the past several decades, state legislatures across the country have sporadically called for an Article V constitutional convention. This convention would open up the US Constitution to additions, edits, and deletions – putting our civil rights and liberties at risk. Our rights to vote, free speech, and privacy could all be up for grabs.

There are no rules or guidelines in our Constitution for how to govern or restrain an Article V convention. There is no guarantee that a convention could be limited to addressing one issue, or would give the American people equal representation.

Instead, unelected and unaccountable delegates would have unlimited power to write their partisan agendas into our Constitution. Colorado’s elected officials must act to prevent this radical power grab.


Protect and Expand Mail Voting

Despite keeping updated and accurate voter rolls, employing signature matching techniques, and providing secure paper ballots, Colorado’s vote-by-mail system has been the subject of baseless partisan attacks.

Amidst this pandemic, it’s crucial to not only protect, but expand access to mail ballots for the millions of Coloradans who rely on this system to vote. Our state should continue to be a leader in the nation.

Colorado can continue to improve our electoral system by counting ballots postmarked prior to Election Day, avoiding the possibility of a voter’s mail ballot being invalidated by arriving after Election Day through no fault of the voter. Pre-paying postage for mail ballots also removes the logistical and financial burden in locating and paying for postage to cast their ballot.


Support Multilingual Ballot Access

There are approximately 82,096 eligible voters in Colorado who do not speak English very well and are effectively denied access to the ballot because they live in counties where election materials are provided only in English. These voters are excluded from full participation in our democracy.

Colorado must provide eligible voters with access to a statewide interpretation hotline to provide over-the-phone translation in the same languages that the census is offered in.
Counties where at least 2,000 citizens over the age of 18 or 2.5% of the citizens over the age of 18 do not speak English very well and speak another language at home must make a translated sample ballot available to voters and provide voters with the ability to vote a translated ballot at a Voter Service and Polling Center.


Create Stronger Campaign Finance Laws

Since the disastrous Citizens United ruling, dark money has increasingly infiltrated state and local races in Colorado. This money comes from nonprofit organizations who are not obligated to release their donors to the public—making the money they spend untraceable to flesh-and-blood humans.

Colorado legislators must work to improve transparency through disclosure and reporting requirements so that voters have the opportunity to know who is contributing to candidates’ campaigns ahead of Election Day. Contribution limits to campaigns and independent expenditure committees must also be improved and enforced to ensure that elected officials remain responsible to their constituents, not their donors.

Existing campaign finance laws must also be monitored and rigorously enforced to ensure that campaign finance violations don’t go undetected or unpunished