Colorado ballot measures 2026: 7 on track to pass, 7 on track to fail

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice

Eight of Colorado’s 14 statewide ballot measures have drawn more yes votes than no votes. Only seven of them are on track to pass.

The count on the Secretary of State site, posted at 8:22 a.m. MST Wednesday, has six of the seven propositions headed for passage and every constitutional amendment but one headed for defeat. About 2.1 million votes have been counted on each question, against about 4.1 million registered voters statewide.

The split is close to a clean line between statutory and constitutional. Colorado requires 55 percent approval to adopt a constitutional amendment. The exception is an amendment limited to a repeal, which passes with a simple majority.

Statutory measures need only a majority.

What is on track to pass

Proposition 133 is the only measure the Associated Press had called as of Wednesday morning. AP projected passage at 9:08 p.m. MST Tuesday with 61.4 percent in favor, the Colorado Sun reported. The state’s count has since moved to 61.84 percent, the highest share of yes votes among the 14.

The measure raises human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude to a class 1 felony carrying life without parole. It also expands the crime to cover trading anything of monetary value to buy or sell sexual activity with a minor.

Proposition NN is at 55.41 percent. It lets the state keep and spend revenue the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights would otherwise refund. The Blue Book says it eliminates refunds for budget years 2026-27 and 2027-28.

RMV reported in September that the two percent annual increase the campaign advertised is a ceiling, not a floor. The measure sets it as the lesser of the school finance formula amount or whatever the state keeps above the cap after the homestead reimbursements come out.

Proposition 132 is at 52.70 percent. It makes distributing any amount of fentanyl a level 1 drug felony with a mandatory 8 to 32 years, and tiers possession by weight.

Three of the seven came from Protect Kids Colorado, with Erin Lee and Michelle Austin as designated representatives.

Along with 133, that group placed Proposition 134 on school and collegiate sports participation, now at 52.37 percent, and Proposition 135 barring certain surgeries on minors, at 51.87 percent. RMV fact-checked opposition claims on both in October.

Amendment 87 is the seventh, and the only amendment in the group.

What is on track to fail

Amendment 84 is the furthest behind of the 14. The mail-ballot voter ID measure drew 36.64 percent yes to 63.36 percent no, a gap of more than 575,000 votes.

Amendment 83, the right to hunt and fish, is at 44.84 percent. RMV carried a commentary on the measure in September and a Steamboat Pilot report in October about Colorado Parks and Wildlife employees backing it.

Amendment 81, which would require law enforcement to notify the U.S. Department of Homeland Security within 72 hours of certain charges, is at 44.97 percent.

Amendment 82, creating a right to buy natural gas and a right for utilities to sell it, is at 46.13 percent. Amendment 86, setting new approval requirements for off-cycle congressional redistricting, is at 46.61 percent.

Proposition 136 is the only proposition trailing, at 47.34 percent.

Amendment 85 is also going down. It is losing while winning the vote, and it gets its own section below.

The one that is winning and losing

Amendment 85 would require state and local ballot questions to be written in plain language at no higher than an eighth-grade reading level. It would also bar any statute from mandating language before, after or inside a citizen initiative’s ballot title.

It is ahead by 33,951 votes, 50.79 percent to 49.21 percent.

It is also 4.21 points short of the 55 percent it needs. More Coloradans have voted for it than against it in the count so far, and it is headed for defeat anyway.

Advance Colorado’s Suzanne Taheri and Michael Fields are the designated representatives.

The two tax measures went opposite ways

Amendment 87 would end the flat 4.4 percent income tax and set graduated rates from 3.71 percent to 8.41 percent. It is ahead 50.49 percent to 49.51 percent, a margin of 21,046 votes.

It falls under the repeal exception. The Blue Book lists it as passing with a majority vote. That is why it clears at 50.49 while Amendment 85 does not clear at 50.79.

Proposition 136 would have capped the rate where it is now. The two were written against each other, and RMV compared them in August, when they were still numbered as initiatives.

Had both passed, state law would generally give control to whichever drew more yes votes, and the Blue Book says the outcome would have been unclear enough to send to the legislature or a court. On the current count that does not come up.

A Denver District Court judge rejected a challenge to Amendment 87’s petition signatures in October, the Denver Gazette reported in a story RMV carried.

The narrowest question on the ballot

Proposition 137 is ahead by 13,569 votes, 50.32 percent to 49.68 percent.

It directs a portion of the existing sales tax on sporting goods to water, land and forest conservation, wildfire prevention and outdoor recreation. The amount shrinks in any year when keeping the full sum would cut the family affordability tax credit or the earned income tax credit.

Front Range rail

Ballot Issue 7A is not one of the 14. It appeared only for voters inside the Front Range Passenger Rail District, and it is leading.

The state reports the district in two pieces. The multi-county line, covering most of the district, shows 436,785 yes to 338,342 no. Adams and Arapahoe counties report separately, and both are voting no. The state’s own district roll-up, last updated at 10:25 p.m. MST Tuesday, put the combined total at 453,474 yes to 368,746 no.

It raises an estimated $295 million a year through a 0.333 percent sales and use tax and authorizes $580 million in debt.

Under current law, voters whose mail ballot signature does not match have eight days after Election Day to fix it.

None of these results are official yet.