MY FELLOW CITIZENS
BEWARE OF REFERENDUM O

They can’t take that away from us, but they’re trying.

In this context, the “they” refers mostly to public officials whose ox has been gored via the initiative process (as in TABOR), and the “that” identifies our right to petition our state government for whatever reason we see fit, as guaranteed by the First Amendment, securing the winning result in the state Constitution to keep the politicians at bay. Occasionally, the judiciary steps in afterwards and decides what’s “fit,” but mostly keeps its hands off.

Denouncing Colorado as a stomping ground for citizen initiatives, they have floated Referendum O seeking, for one thing, to sharply increase the number of signatures required to put initiated laws on the ballot. They want to fix it so that only the special interest groups (think tanks, unions, 501s) will be able to file initiatives because they will have the money and power to organize petition drives to collect signatures, no matter the number. If the news media want to promote participatory democracy, then disempowering the grassroots is not the way to go.

So they throw us a bone called “initiated statutes” which are good for five years. What a sham. They must be kidding.

Long ballot? County officials can speed up voting by setting up more polling places. People who intend to continue governing themselves must take the time to do so.
P.