And just like that, Gov. Jared Polis blew up the 2020 Election this weekend.
Good for him.
Polis, by decree, ruled Friday that the Secretary of State must allow backers of citizen ballot initiatives to gather petition signatures using email and snail-mail instead of having to just lurk around grocery stores this summer and either annoy or scare the hell out of pandemic-era shoppers.
The decision is huge and virtually guarantees that if you can dream it, Colorado voters are going to have to vote on it this fall. It could lead to voters deciding 13 ballot questions ranging from $40 tax credits if you vote to revenge of the oil companies.
“This is a challenging time for Colorado, but we must not sacrifice our democracy and the right of citizens to petition due to the pandemic,” Polis said in a statement after sliding a gubernatorial order into the Friday evening snooze cycle as if it were a proclamation for being kind to each other, rather than bomb that could turn the November ballot into an epic. “Protecting our democracy, access to the ballot and making sure citizens can qualify ballot measures and can qualify as candidates to run for office during this time is critical.”
It’s the worst nightmare imaginable for state lawmakers and others who think Colorado’s unusual citizen initiative power is the antithesis of republican, representative government. Even voters agreed not so long ago to raise the bar on how many votes it should take to pass constitutional amendments, now requiring a supermajority of 55%.
The ballot-signature bar this year is 124,632 John Hancocks high. It’s a tall order that realistically limits ballot initiatives to the well-heeled and well-connected activist groups. That’s because it can cost millions of dollars to pay petition collectors to stand in the sun and snow, asking people just trying to get to their cars if they want to prevent heathen liberals from murdering babies, or save the babies from being poisoned by greedy conservatives running ruthless oil companies.
More often than not, these measures come up short if they’re long on polarizing topics. The argument for raising the signature bar higher and higher is a history of self-inflicted wounds by Colorado voters over the years. The so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights, voter-approved in 1992, has to be one of the most egregious wrongs ever to befall Colorado. That’s not just my opinion. Ask Colorado-born and raised conservatives like Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman what a mess TABOR regularly causes.
The worst of the worst was notorious Amendment 2, passed by voters that same year. The measure supposedly sought to ensure that gays and lesbians had equal but not better rights than straight residents. It was a devious lie that hoodwinked voters and led to Colorado being labeled “The Hate State,” even after courts ruled it was illegal and repugnant.
Voters, however, have done plenty of good over the years going around dead-weight in the Colorado Legislature. With Amendment 64, we became leaders in ending marijuana prohibition at the ballot box. Colorado voters have also smote politicians with real rules and a “gift ban,” thanks to Amendment 41, to keep them from swimming in graft from lobbyists and other courtiers. In fact, Polis was the leading force in getting the measure on the ballot and persuading voters what a good idea it was. This is the state where voters began the national push for term limits. And more times than President Donald Trump has replaced his chiefs of staff and press secretaries, Colorado voters have given the kibosh to malevolent anti-abortion measures.
Expect, however, to hear loudly from all sides of the political spectrum about whether Polis had the right to make up sweeping election law, or how this law gives unfair advantage to the kooky ballot issues that are now a slam-dunk to get emailed onto the 2020 ballot.
Proponents of recalling Polis just months after he began his term last year as governor — for the self-stated reason that he was carrying out campaign promises endorsed by 53% of Colorado voters in 2018 — failed embarrassingly by collecting fewer signatures than those turning a petition in could count one of their hands. But there’s little doubt they’re going to love seeing fanatic anti-abortion and anti-tax questions sail onto the ballot, thanks to Polis.
Why the hell not? This is a state that should be damned proud of its mail-ballot election system. Despite some conspiracy theory nonsense claims of the usual conspiracy theory nut cases in Colorado, the state’s mail-voting process is cheap, wondrously convenient and as free of fraud as state elections can be with or without mail-ballots.
If you’re thinking there’s widespread voter fraud in Colorado’s mail-ballot elections, allow me to remind you of the humiliation suffered by those who spent a lot of time and resources tracking down that alleged fraud a few years ago only to come up empty-handed and looking like the fools they were.
No doubt that Polis would have come off better building on a resolution from state lawmakers saying trying times demand trying something different. But with general assembly members staying home with the rest of us, Polis had no choice but to act.
No doubt everyone, except for the petition collectors, wants to ensure this process is as accountable as the mail-ballot election process, and infinitely more transparent, since petitions and signatures are open record. Making this decision seems pretty easy. Making this happen is going to be a whole other thing.
And so here we are. The date to get new measures on the ballot has long passed. By accident, Colorado voters will take part in a pandemic clinical trial of seeing just how susceptible they are to widespread voter initiatives. If this is a success, it could mean there’s going to be one less thing to hate about going to the grocery store these days.
Follow @EditorDavePerry on Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com