From the Denver Auditors Office 9-28-2016

Ballots for the General Election are scheduled to be mailed the third week in October, and are due by Tuesday, November 8th. People can register and vote on the same day at Voter Service and Polling Centers as late as November 8th. The ballot is long. Among the many elected offices, there are 15 questions Denver voters will be asked to decide.

• Amendment T – remove language that currently allows slavery and involuntary servitude to be used as punishment for the conviction of a crime
• Amendment U – eliminate property taxes for businesses that use government-owned property for a private benefit, such as leased federal land for cattle grazing, skiing or concessionaires, worth $6,000 or less in market value, and adjust the exemption threshold every two years to account for inflation
• Amendment 69 – establish ColoradoCare, state financing of health care for Colorado residents; fund ColoradoCare by creating new income taxes, redirecting existing state and federal funding of health services, and exempt it from constitutional revenue limits; establish a board of trustees, initially appointed and then elected, to oversee the operation, and allow the board to terminate ColoradoCare if exemptions and agreements from state and federal governments are not sufficient for a sound operation; require voter approval for future tax increases
• Amendment 70 – increase the state minimum wage to $9.30 beginning January 2017, with annual increases of $0.90 each January until it reaches $12 per hour by January 2020, and annually adjusting it thereafter for cost-of-living increases
• Amendment 71 – require at least 2% of registered electors who reside in each state senate district to sign a petition for a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment to be placed on the ballot; require at least 55% of the votes cast to pass an amendment, except for proposals that only repeal a part of the constitution
• Amendment 72 – increase state tax on a pack of cigarettes to $2.59 and on other tobacco products by 62% of the price; distribute the new tax revenue to medical research, tobacco-use prevention, doctors and clinics in rural or low-income areas, veterans’ services, child and adolescent behavioral health, and other health-related programs
• Proposition 106 – allow a terminally-ill person with a prognosis of six months or less to live to request and self-administer aid-in-dying medication in order to voluntarily end his or her life; authorize a physician to prescribe aid-in-dying medication under certain conditions; create criminal penalties for tampering with a person’s request for aid-in-dying medication or coercing a person to request medication
• Proposition 107 – establish a presidential primary election in Colorado that provides affiliated voters a ballot with their party’s candidates, and unaffiliated voters a ballot with all candidates; determine the party’s presidential nominee by primary election with the winner receiving all the party’s delegates from Colorado at the national convention; fund presidential primary elections through state and county taxes
• Proposition 108 – change the primary election in Colorado to allow unaffiliated voters to vote in a non-presidential primary election of a single political party; also, allow political parties to opt out of holding primaries, and instead nominate candidates by assembly or convention
• Ballot Issue 4B – reauthorize the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) sales and use tax of 0.1% through June 30, 2030

City and County of Denver questions:

• Referred Question 2A – retain, spend and continue to collect 0.03% sales and use tax for the Denver Preschool Program through December 31, 2026
• Referred Question 2B – move the Office of the Independent Monitor and Citizen Oversight Board to a formalized status within the City Charter
• Initiated Ordinance 300 – create a pilot that allows for public marijuana consumption areas that may overlap with any other type of business or licensed premise; expires on December 31, 2020
• Ballot Issue 3A – increase property tax by $57 million for Denver Public Schools; funds are slated for educational and programmatic changes
• Ballot Issue 3B – allow the issuance and payment of general obligation bonds of $572 million (with a maximum repayment of $1.1 billion); funds are slated for facilities and structural changes

2016 Blue Book