Colorado Petitions Act (1996)
From Ballotpedia
Colorado Amendment 13, also known as the Petitions Act, was on the November 7, 1996 election ballot in Colorado. It was defeated, with 31.1% of voters in favor.
Text of the proposal
The language that appeared on the ballot:
The proposed amendment to the Colorado Constitution: - Extends initiative and referendum petition powers to citizens of local governments that do not have these processes - school districts, counties, special districts, enterprises and authorities;
- Establishes petition procedures for state and local governments, some of which are new and some of which replace existing procedures: - Ballot titles - limits length of ballot titles to 100 words, requires they be set within 7 days of a request, allows any district court to set titles, prohibits preparation of a summary or fiscal impact statement, limits the time to challenge titles or single-subject compliance, directs the Supreme Court to decide these questions within 21 days, gives the Supreme Court sole jurisdiction on single-subject challenges, and sets the form of referendum titles for the ballot; - Signature gathering - establishes the percentage of signatures required for local petitions, requires that affected governmental units provide petition forms, allows a fee for providing such forms, prohibits the government from restricting the collection of signatures on government-owned property that is open, limits the regulation of petition circulators, and expands the time frame for collecting signatures; - Signature review - establishes the legal standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" for invalidating signatures, requires the challenger to prove that the signatures are invalid, reduces the itme permitted for protesting signatures and for filing additional signatures, and sets a standard for evaluation errors in petitions; - Elections - permits any statewide citizen-referred or initiated ballot question to be voted on at odd-year November elections, as well as the general election in even-numbered years, and specifies that any such local ballot question may appear on the ballot only at November elections or at the local biennial election; and - Voter information materials - before each election, requires distribution to voters of comments prepared by propoents and of summaries of opponents' comments, limits the length of such comments, and sets time frames for the submission of comments;
- Not counting appropriations for government operations, restricts to not more than nine the number of measures exempted from possible referral to voters that a governing body may enact in any year, and requires a vote fo three-fourths of the body to approve such measures;
- Requires voter approval within the following eight years for the reenactment of any legislative provision that has been referred by petition and rejected by the voters;
- Permits future voter-approved initiatives to be changed only by approval of the voters;
- After March 1, 1997, requires voter approval of future state or local laws or regulations relating to citizen-referred orinitiated petitions;
- Provides that a simple majority of those voting on the issue is required for approval of citizen-referred or initiated ballot questions; and
- Specifies how Colorado courts are to interpret the amendment if litigation arises, sets time frames for filing suits charging violations of the amendment, and addresses cost and attorney fees for plaintiffs and defendants.
