November 8 was an extremely eventful day for American citizens due to the presidential election; however, Colorado residents not only voted for their presidential candidates, but for Colorado Ballot Initiatives, as well. A Ballot Initiative is a petition signed by registered voters that allows the public to vote on a proposed statute. Some of the proposed statutes in Colorado were very controversial, and others passed fairly easily.

• Amendment 69: would create the “Colorado Care” system to provide universal healthcare to Colorado residents via increased taxes. It is a proposal to create free healthcare for all Colorado residents with a tax increase.

Voted – No by 80%

• Amendment 70: will now raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour. Lifting the minimum wage to $12 an hour would bring $400 million into the Colorado economy, and boost incomes by nearly 20 percent.

Voted- Yes by 54%

• Amendment 71: would make the process of petitioning more complex by requiring a larger geographic distribution of the petitions. Specifically, signatures would have to be collected from each of the state’s 35 senate districts

Voted- Yes by 57%

• Amendment 72: would increase the Tobacco Tax by 62%. If the amendment were passed, it would more than triple the tax per-pack and pass along the proceeds to a similar variety of efforts.

Voted- No by 54%

• Amendment U: would have exempted possessive interests valued less than $6000 from taxes, and adjust that figure due to inflation every two years.

Voted- No by 57%

• Proposition 106: now allows terminally ill patients to end their lives with the assistance of a doctor.

Voted- Yes by 65%

• Proposition 107: allows unaffiliated voters to participatein the primaries.

Voted- Yes by 64%

• Proposition 108: would no longer force unaffiliated voters to register with a political party.

This ballot initiative has not yet received its result.
Colorado will re-open the ballot, with new proposals in 2020. These proposals will now be much harder to come by due to Amendment 71.