Protect &
Simplify Our Ballots
Protect your mail ballot. Make the ballot readable.
Two questions decide how Coloradans vote for years to come. Amendment 84 would put part of your Social Security number on the outside of your mail ballot envelope. Amendment 85 would make every ballot question in Colorado readable. Courageous Colorado Action says No on 84 and Yes on 85.
Amendment 84: No.
Protect Colorado's mail ballot system.
Today: you sign your envelope. Election judges check your signature. If it doesn't match, they contact you and you get to fix it. That's how it works.
Under 84: you also write the last four digits of your Social Security number, driver's license, or state ID on the outside of the envelope. If the number is missing or wrong, your ballot isn't counted until you fix it. The requirement would be written into the state constitution.
Why vote NO?
The state already has your number. When you registered to vote, you gave Colorado your driver's license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number. The state already uses it to confirm your identity. 84 makes you hand it over again every time you vote by mail.
It goes on the outside of the envelope. Your ballot passes through a mailbox, a mail truck, a sorting facility, and a county office. 84 puts part of your Social Security number or license number on the outside of that envelope, where anyone who handles it can see it.
Colorado's system already works. Every mail ballot signature is checked. Flagged signatures go to two election judges from different parties. Voters get eight days to fix a problem. In 2024, 92% of Colorado ballots were cast by mail. Colorado has built a mail-ballot system voters trust.
It creates another way for ballots to be set aside. Every extra requirement on the envelope is another chance for a valid ballot to need fixing first. Older voters, rural voters, voters with disabilities, and voters whose first language isn't English may face added barriers.
It costs money. The state's analysis puts the cost at up to $2.7 million in the first year, mostly falling on county clerks, with business filing fees likely rising to cover the state's share.
The bottom line: protect what works. Big changes to Colorado's mail ballot system should be built with the voters and election officials who use it. Vote No on 84.
Amendment 85: Yes.
Make Colorado's ballot easier to understand.
Today: Colorado's ballot language is a wall. In 2024, Colorado ballot titles averaged a reported 24th-grade reading level, past a doctoral degree. A ten-year study of ballot questions across the country found Colorado's second hardest in the nation. Voters can't follow the questions, so they skip them.
Under 85: every ballot question in Colorado, state and local, would have to be written in plain language at no more than an eighth-grade reading level. State law also couldn't force jargon into a citizen initiative's ballot title. It doesn't change what a measure does. It changes how the question is written.
Why vote YES?
You shouldn't need a law degree to read your ballot. Colorado's ballot questions can run 100, 150, even 200 words in a single sentence, often in all capital letters. Lawyers write them. Even lawyers can't always agree on what they mean.
Every voter deserves a ballot they can understand. A new voter casting a ballot for the first time. A voter reading in a second language. A voter with a disability. A voter juggling two jobs and 30 seconds to read a question. If voters can't understand the question, it's harder to make an informed choice.
When questions are harder to read, voters skip them. The same ten-year study found that as ballot questions get harder to read, more voters leave them blank. In 2022, more than 313,000 Coloradans who cast a ballot skipped Amendment D. In 2024, more than 260,000 skipped Proposition 131.
It's already law in other states. New York passed an eighth-grade standard in 2023. Rhode Island followed in 2024. Colorado moved in the same direction this year with HB26-1320, passed with CCA's support. Amendment 85 puts the eighth-grade standard in the constitution, where a future legislature can't quietly walk it back.
The tax information can stay. 85 doesn't repeal Proposition GG or any tax disclosure law. The tax table stays on the ballot. It just has to be written so people can read it.
The bottom line: simplify our ballots. The choices are important, and the words explaining them should be clear. Vote Yes on 85.
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Yes. Every mail ballot signature is checked against the one on file. If it doesn't match, two election judges from different parties review it. If there's a problem, the voter is contacted and gets eight days after Election Day to confirm their identity. Colorado also tracks every ballot and offers free text and email alerts so you know when your ballot is received and counted.
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Not gone, but set aside. The county would contact you, and your ballot wouldn't count until you confirm your identity within eight days of Election Day, in person or by sending a copy of an accepted ID. Miss the window, and your ballot isn't counted.
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You already show ID to register and to vote in person. 84 doesn't change either. It adds a number on the outside of every mail ballot envelope, on top of the signature the state already checks. It's a second lock on a door that's already locked, with part of the key showing on the outside.
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Anyone who returns a mail ballot, by mail or drop box. If the ID number is missing or can't be checked, the ballot is set aside until the voter fixes it. If your ballot rides through the mail system, part of your ID number is visible on the outside of the envelope the whole way.
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The state's analysis estimates up to $2.7 million in the first year and about $1.2 million a year after that for outreach, printing, and staff. Most first-year costs fall on counties. To cover the state's share, business filing fees may go up.
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Amendment 85 sets the standard but doesn't name a formula. The existing Title Board already writes the ballot questions for statewide citizen initiatives and applies the standard. How the eighth-grade level is measured would be worked out in implementation, with a transparent and consistent method.
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It stays. Amendment 85 doesn't repeal Proposition GG or any tax disclosure law. State law just couldn't require specific language in a citizen-initiated question if that language breaks the plain-language and eighth-grade standard.
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Yes. Every state and local ballot question, including the city, county, and school district questions that are often the longest on the ballot.
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Yes. A ten-year study of more than 1,200 ballot questions found Colorado's averaged a 27th-grade reading level, second hardest in the country. More recent analyses show the problem hasn't gone away: Colorado ranked ninth hardest in 2022, hardest in 2023, sixth in 2024, and second hardest in 2025. These are formula scores based on sentence and word length, not a claim that you need 27 years of school. But the point stands: Colorado's ballot language consistently tests above a doctoral level.
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Because it would change the Colorado Constitution. In 2016, voters approved a rule requiring most constitutional amendments to win at least 55% of the vote, not just a simple majority. Amendment 84 would also change the constitution, so it faces the same bar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Make your Colorado ballot voting guide.
Start with CCA's two recommendations, No on 84 and Yes on 85, already filled in. Choose Yes, No, or Skip on the other measures. Download a square image and a printable PDF with official questions and sources, and share it with your people.