Eight of those 14 were put there by conservative group Advance Colorado — unlike actual citizen-initiated ballot measures, the group is willing to pay a few million dollars a pop for paid canvassers to beg, borrow, and steal their ideas onto the ballot — and another three were put there by anti-trans organization Protect Kids Colorado (which is currently facing a campaign finance complaint for failing to disclose the extent to which it paid canvassers to put its ideas on the ballot). That leaves three.

Initially, my intention was to dedicate this week’s column to those final three, two of which are roundly deserving of a yes vote and the third of which appears to be a toss-up, in that nobody I have spoken to has a particularly strong opinion for or against it. That original intention, however, has come up against two factors which have caused me to reconsider dedicating an entire column to the final three. The first factor? I really don’t think my regular readers are the kind of Coloradans who need to be convinced to support a graduated income tax or school funding. The second factor, though, is a bit more pressing: ballots will begin arriving in the mail within a week. With time short, I have decided to include my recommendations for those remaining three initiatives not as a standalone piece, but as part of this, my final, comprehensive ballot guide. 

Without further ado: the 2026 Muckraker Ballot Guide. 

Amendment 81 – Law Enforcement Cooperation with ICE

Supported by: Advance Colorado

Opposed by: League of Women Voters of Colorado, Rocky Mountain Equality, Indivisible Colorado

Links:

Amendment 82 – Right to Natural Gas

Supported by: Advance Colorado

Opposed by: Conservation Colorado, Colorado Fund for Children & Public Education, Western Resource Advocates, AFSCME, Cobalt Foundation, and Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

Links:

Amendment 83 – Constitutional Right to Hunt & Fish

Supported by: Advance Colorado; International Order of T. Roosevelt

Opposed by: Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, Colorado Hunters & Anglers for Sensible Wildlife Conservation, ColoradoWild, Sierra Club Colorado, Western Watersheds Project, Wildlife for All, and more

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Amendment 84 – Mail Ballot Voter ID

Supported by: Advance Colorado, Coalition for American Prosperity & Growth

Opposed by: League of Women Voters of Colorado, Colorado Common Cause, Defend Our Ballots

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Amendment 85 – 8th Grade Reading Level Ballot Questions

Note: There is an ongoing effort specifically to convince Democratic voters that this initiative should be passed. In addition to the arguments which have already been marshaled against it, I’ll encourage you to ask yourself one, single question: if Amendment 85 were in keeping with progressive interests, why would Advance Colorado spend millions of dollars to support it? If you answered, “they wouldn’t,” you are correct. Anyone suggesting otherwise is selling something.

Supported by: Advance Colorado

Opposed by: League of Women Voters of Colorado, Democratic Party of Colorado, Boulder Progressives

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Amendment 86 – Congressional Redistricting

Supported by: Advance Colorado

Opposed by: No formal opposition

Links:

Amendment 87 – Graduated Income Tax

Supported by: Conservation Colorado, New Era, Great Education Colorado, Colorado Center on Law and Policy, Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition, COLOR, Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, Colorado Cross Disability Coalition, Bell Policy Center, Colorado Fiscal Institute, Colorado PTA, COWINS, and more

Opposed by: Advance Colorado, Americans for Prosperity Colorado

Links:

Proposition NN – K-12 Public School Funding

Supported by: Colorado Education Association, Colorado Fund for Children & Public Education

Opposed by: Advance Colorado

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Proposition 132 – Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes

Supported by: Advance Colorado

Opposed by: League of Women Voters of Colorado, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, Signal Behavioral Health Network, Indivisible Colorado

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Proposition 133 – Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor

Supported by: Protect Kids Colorado

Opposed by: Families Not Politics, Vote Common Sense, Indivisible Colorado

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Proposition 134 – Male and Female Participation in School Sports

Supported by: Protect Kids Colorado, Focus on the Family

Opposed by: Families Not Politics, Inside Out Youth Services, Interfaith Alliance, One Colorado, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountain Equality, Indivisible Colorado, and more

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Proposition 135 – Prohibit Certain Surgeries on Minors

Supported by: Protect Kids Colorado, Focus on the Family

Opposed by: Families Not Politics, Inside Out Youth Services, Interfaith Alliance, One Colorado, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountain Equality, Indivisible Colorado, and more

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Proposition 136 – Income Tax Rate Cap

Supported by: Advance Colorado

Opposed by: Vote Common Sense

Links:

Proposition 137 – Designate Sporting Goods Sales Tax Revenue for Conservation

Note: From what I can tell, Proposition 137 sounds like a decent measure. However, there are a great number of fantastically smart people whose opinions I seek on these matters, and none of them have a particularly strong opinion on Proposition 137. Amid a slate of initiatives designed to deface the state, Proposition 137 seems unobjectionable, but also raises questions about placing limitations on our duly-elected legislators’ ability to budget.

Supported by: Conservation Colorado, The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, Environmental Defense Fund, The Wilderness Society, NRDC Action Fund, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Denver Water and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and more

Opposed by: Clean Energy Action, ColoradoWild, Eco-Integrity Alliance, League of Women Voters of Colorado, and more

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