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I'm a CO resident, and I was honestly astounded that the measure passed with such a wide margin. I don't think people read or understood the measure. CO general
by yesiamyourdad 10y ago
I'm a CO resident, and I was honestly astounded that the measure passed with such a wide margin. I don't think people read or understood the measure. CO generally has a big libertarian streak (we're one of the states Gary Johnson did best in). I'm guessing the measure won on the strength of the name alone and not the merits of the actual law.
Now the usual suspects lined up against it, and that's who NPR interviewed: the Christian right out of Colorado Springs. However, I saw more opposition to this in my middle class gentrified neighborhood than I saw support or opposition for any measure, except maybe the tax measure to support the cultural district. This neighborhood is anything but conservative and this is one of the rare cases where seeing signs on the neighbors' lawns made me look deeper and actually change my vote from the reflexive "yes" to a "no".
The good news out of this election is that Prop 107 passed, which makes it harder to get constitutional amendments on the ballot. One of the things I dislike about living here is how the state is used as a political laboratory for everybody's pet poli sci project.
- bagacrap 10y agoCare to share what you saw when you looked deeper?
- blackguardx 10y agoI voted yes on Prop 106. Can you explain your reasoning for voting no? It didn't seem like there was anything hidden inside the measure. I think you mean Prop 71 instead of 107. I voted no on Prop 71. I like the idea in principle but didn't like the requirement to gather signatures from all districts.
- puddintane 10y agoColorado resident as well and I voted yes on 107 as well, I couldn't find anything hidden but would really like to know if I had missed something about it.
- liquidise 10y agoMy issue with it was that it squeezed the wrong end of the amendment "funnel". It makes it harder to propose amendments. I don't remember a frivolous amendment being proposed. Instead, i would have preferred to see a bill making it harder to pass amendments, moving it to 60% or something similar. That said, a lot of the progress the state has had would have failed under either requirement. Min wage increase, end of life, recreational pot, etc. I have never said to myself "wow, we propose and pass a lot of amendments that should never have seen the ballot in the first place". And if we did, i want to see the ideas. Keep proposing easy and make them need more voter backing to pass.
- teuobk 10y agoAmendment 71 also made it harder to pass amendments: the threshold is now 55%. The only exception is for amendments that repeal things from the constitution, for which the threshold is still 50% Details: https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_Imposition_of_Distribution_and_Supermajority_Requirements_for_Citizen-Initiated_Constitutional_Amendments,_Amendment_71_(2016) https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_Imposition_of_Distribution_...
- swasheck 10y agoYes. Prop 107 was to allow unaffiliated voters the opportunity to vote in primaries. Amendment 71 was the vote that would make it more difficult to amend the Colorado Constitution. My understanding is that 71 won't restrict propositions or ballot initiatives. I read 71 as specifically restricting future amendments.
- homersapien 10y agoI'm a Coloradan and this doesn't jive with my experience. I wasn't surprised it passed. We believe in personal freedoms here, and there is perhaps no greater personal freedom than the right to choose to die with dignity.
- yesiamyourdad 10y agoI think you missed my point. The point is that CO is extremely libertarian, but I was seeing resistance from areas that surprised me. Liberal urban enclaves I would expect to see embracing 106 were actually fighting it.
- flukus 10y agoDon't know about America, but in Australia I know it's had overwhelming public support for decades but politicians still won't go near it.