Statehouse
Seven of 14 ballot measures on track to pass in Colorado
Six propositions and one constitutional amendment were on track to pass in the Wednesday morning count, while six amendments were on track to fail, one of them despite winning a majority of votes.
DENVER
Colorado voters faced 14 statewide measures on Tuesday, seven proposed constitutional amendments and seven proposed changes to state law. In the count the Secretary of State posted at 8:22 a.m. on Wednesday, eight of the measures had more yes votes than no votes, and seven of them were on track to pass. The distance between those two numbers is the constitution itself.
Six of the amendments, Amendments 81 through 86, add language to the state constitution, and an amendment of that kind needs 55 percent of the votes cast to pass. The seventh, Amendment 87, is limited to repealing the constitution's requirement of a single flat income tax rate, so it passes on a simple majority, the same threshold the seven propositions need. The measures and their thresholds are set out in the 2026 State Ballot Information Booklet, the Blue Book prepared by the nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff.
Amendment 87 is the closest amendment on the ballot. It would replace the flat 4.4 percent state income tax with graduated rates and direct the added revenue, stated in the ballot title at up to $2.7 billion a year, to K-12 education, health care and early childhood programs. The Blue Book's central estimate is lower, about $1.97 billion in the first full year. On Wednesday morning it led with 1,081,843 yes votes, 50.49 percent, against 1,060,797 no votes, a margin of 21,046 votes. The Associated Press had not called the measure.
Amendment 85 shows the other side of the threshold. It would require state and local ballot questions to be written in plain language at no higher than an eighth grade reading level. It led with 50.79 percent of the vote, ahead by 33,951 votes, and it is still on track to fail, because it needs 55 percent and sits 4.21 points short of it.
Among the propositions, six were above 50 percent in the Wednesday morning count and one was below it. The Associated Press has called the passage of Proposition NN, which raises the state revenue cap under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights by about $4.6 billion in its first year to fund K-12 education, with analysts estimating about $500 million actually retained in that year, and of Proposition 133, which increases the penalty for human trafficking of a minor to life in prison without parole. The narrowest margin of the 14 belonged to Proposition 137, which directs sporting goods tax revenue to conservation and wildfire work: it led with 50.32 percent, ahead by 13,569 votes.
Propositions 134 and 135 also led and had not been called. Proposition 134 would require school sports participation to be based on biological sex, as the measure defines the term, and led with about 52 percent voting yes in the Associated Press tally. Proposition 135 would prohibit gender affirming surgery for minors, and it also led with about 52 percent voting yes.
The one proposition trailing was Proposition 136, which would cap state income tax rates at 4.4 percent. It had 47.34 percent yes votes in the Wednesday morning count. Had it passed alongside Amendment 87, the two measures would have pointed in opposite directions, because the graduated rates in Amendment 87 rise above 4.4 percent at the highest incomes. The furthest behind of the 14 measures was Amendment 84, the mail ballot voter identification measure, with 36.64 percent voting yes.
None of these results is official. Counting continues in the state's 64 counties, ballots from military and overseas voters can still arrive through Nov. 12, and no measure becomes law or constitutional text on the strength of an election night lead. The county canvass boards certify their results later in November, on or before the 22nd day after Election Day.
