INTERACTIVE: Breaking down Colorado's 14 Ballot Measures

Coloradans didn't just pick leaders in the 2026 midterms — they voted on 14 measures that could rewrite the state constitution, reshape taxes, and change life for years to come. See where you stood.

From rewriting Colorado's tax structure to banning certain surgeries on minors, the 2026 midterm ballot asked voters to weigh in on some of the most consequential policy questions in recent state history. Fourteen statewide measures covered everything from fentanyl penalties and child sex trafficking laws to natural gas rights and Front Range rail funding.

Before you see how Colorado voted, tell us where YOU stood — and find out how aligned your instincts were with the rest of the state.

• 14 — Statewide Ballot Measures
• 5 — Constitutional Amendments
• 8 — Propositions on the Ballot

The 2026 Colorado ballot was unusually dense — not just in the number of measures, but in how much ground they covered. Voters were asked to weigh in on the state constitution, the criminal code, education funding, gender policy in schools, and even the right to hunt and fish. It was the kind of ballot that required a cheat sheet.

For Denver-area residents especially, the stakes were layered. Measures touching TABOR refunds, income tax rates, and Front Range rail funding had direct implications for household budgets and daily commutes. And several of the constitutional amendments, if passed, would be far harder to undo than a typical statute.

• 5 — Constitutional Amendments — Amendments 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87
• 8 — Propositions — NN, 132–137
• $500K — Income threshold in Amendment 87 — Below this = lower tax rate proposed
• 10 — Years of education funding — Prop NN would have allocated TABOR refunds for a decade

How Well Do You Know Colorado's 2026 Ballot?

Five questions. The answers might surprise you.

Proposition NN proposed using TABOR refund money to fund K-12 education. What would that mean for Colorado taxpayers?

• Tax refund checks would be smaller in some years — Correct. Proposition NN would allocate TABOR refunds to K-12 programs for 10 years — meaning taxpayers would receive lower refund checks in years when that money was redirected.
• Income taxes would increase immediately — Not quite. Prop NN didn't raise income tax rates — it redirected money already collected above the TABOR cap that would otherwise have been refunded directly to taxpayers.
• School districts would lose local funding control — That wasn't the mechanism. The proposition was specifically about redirecting statewide TABOR refunds — not restructuring how local districts manage their own budgets.
• The state income tax flat rate would be eliminated — That was Amendment 87, not Prop NN. The two measures addressed different parts of Colorado's tax structure — one targeted TABOR refunds, the other targeted the income tax rate itself.

Amendment 87 and Proposition 136 were both on the ballot. What made them unusual as a pair?

• They proposed opposite approaches to the same tax question — Exactly. Amendment 87 would replace Colorado's flat income tax with a graduated system. Proposition 136 was the direct counter — locking the flat rate at 4.4% constitutionally. Voters were choosing between two competing futures for the tax code.
• Both were written by the same legislator — The source article doesn't indicate a shared author — but their relationship is clear: Proposition 136 was explicitly described as 'the response to Amendment 87,' making them direct rivals on the same ballot.
• One applied to individuals, the other to corporations only — Not quite. Proposition 136 set a 4.4% rate for both individuals AND corporations. The distinction wasn't who was taxed, but whether the rate would be flat or graduated.
• They both required a two-thirds supermajority to pass — Constitutional amendments in Colorado do require a 55% threshold to pass — but the remarkable thing about these two measures was that they were competing tax philosophies on the same ballot, not their procedural requirements.

Amendment 82 would make buying and selling natural gas a constitutional right. What was the key concern raised by critics?

• It could strip local governments of land use and energy regulation authority — Correct. Critics warned that enshrining natural gas access in the state constitution could override local government control over land use and energy regulation — a significant shift of power from municipalities to the state.
• It would force Colorado to build new natural gas pipelines — The amendment was about the right to buy and sell natural gas, not about mandating new infrastructure. The concern critics raised was about regulatory authority, not construction requirements.
• It would prevent Colorado from meeting its climate goals — While energy transition is a broader debate in Colorado, the specific critique of Amendment 82 in this reporting focused on local government control over land use and energy regulation — not state climate targets directly.
• It would make natural gas prices state-regulated — Price regulation wasn't the concern raised. Critics focused on what a constitutional right to natural gas access would mean for local governments trying to regulate or restrict energy use in their jurisdictions.

Proposition 133 addressed child sex trafficking. Beyond increasing prison penalties, what else did it do?

• It expanded the legal definition to include buying sexual activity with a minor — Correct. Proposition 133 didn't just increase penalties to life in prison without parole — it also broadened the legal definition of child sex trafficking to include the act of buying sexual activity with a minor, closing a gap in existing law.
• It created a new state registry for convicted traffickers — A trafficking registry wasn't part of this proposition. The two core elements were the penalty increase to life without parole and expanding the legal definition to cover buyers of sexual activity with minors.
• It required schools to report suspected trafficking cases to the state — School reporting requirements weren't part of Proposition 133. The measure focused on the criminal penalties for traffickers and the legal definition of what constitutes child sex trafficking under Colorado law.
• It established a victim compensation fund — Victim compensation wasn't addressed in this proposition. The measure was specifically about criminal penalties and expanding the definition of the crime — not about downstream support for survivors.

Ballot Measure 7A dealt with the Front Range Passenger Rail District. What would it have funded specifically?

• The southern Colorado portion of the Colorado Connector (CoCo) rail system — Correct. Measure 7A proposed increasing Front Range Passenger Rail District taxes to fund the southern Colorado portion of the Colorado Connector — nicknamed CoCo — in addition to supporting broader system investment.
• A new light rail line connecting Denver to Boulder — A Denver-Boulder line wasn't part of 7A. The measure specifically targeted the southern Colorado extension of the Colorado Connector — a statewide Front Range rail system, not a Denver metro light rail expansion.
• Repairs to the existing Union Station infrastructure — Union Station repairs weren't the focus. Measure 7A was about expanding the Front Range Passenger Rail District's reach southward via the Colorado Connector — a new intercity rail project, not existing station maintenance.
• Free transit passes for low-income Colorado residents — Free passes weren't part of 7A. The measure raised Front Range Passenger Rail District taxes to fund construction and investment in the Colorado Connector system's southern expansion.

That quiz covers the nuances reporters worked to explain — because ballot measure language is notoriously hard to decode. Amendment 85, in fact, was specifically designed to fix that problem: it would require future ballot measures to be written at an eighth-grade reading level, making them accessible to more Coloradans.

Colorado's constitutional amendment process is also unusually consequential. Unlike regular legislation, constitutional changes require a 55% threshold to pass and are far harder to repeal. That means measures like Amendment 82 (natural gas rights) or Amendment 83 (hunting and fishing rights) would be baked into the state's foundational law — not just a statute the legislature could revisit in a session.

Constitutional Amendments vs. Propositions: What's the Difference?

All 14 Measures at a Glance

• Amendment 81 — Law Enforcement Reporting to ICE
• Amendment 82 — Right to Buy and Sell Natural Gas
• Amendment 83 — Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish
• Amendment 84 — Mail Ballot Voter ID Requirement
• Amendment 85 — Plain Language Ballot Questions (8th-grade reading level)
• Amendment 86 — Harder Congressional Redistricting Process
• Amendment 87 — Graduated Income Tax — lower rates under $500K/year
• Prop NN — TABOR Refunds Redirected to K-12 Education (10 years)
• Prop 132 — Harsher Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes
• Prop 133 — Life Without Parole for Child Sex Trafficking
• Prop 134 — School Sports by Biological Sex
• Prop 135 — Prohibit Certain Gender-Affirming Surgeries on Minors
• Prop 136 — Income Tax Rate Locked at 4.4% (counter to Amendment 87)
• Prop 137 — Sporting Goods Sales Tax Redirected to Wildfire Conservation
• Measure 7A — Front Range Rail District Tax Increase for CoCo Southern Expansion

What Is TABOR — and Why Does It Keep Showing Up on the Ballot?

Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights — TABOR — is a constitutional amendment passed in 1992 that limits how much revenue the state government can keep. When tax collections exceed the cap, the surplus must be refunded to taxpayers.

That's why ballot measures touching TABOR refunds — like Proposition NN, which would have redirected those refunds to K-12 education for a decade — require a statewide vote. Changing how TABOR money is used means changing the state constitution, which is the highest bar in Colorado policymaking.

Proposition 137, which would redirect existing sporting goods sales tax to wildfire conservation, would also reduce TABOR refund checks in some years — another downstream effect of the same constitutional constraint.

The competing income tax measures — Amendment 87 and Proposition 136 — put Colorado voters in an unusual position: choosing between two fundamentally different visions of fairness in a single election. Amendment 87 would have removed the constitutional requirement for a single flat rate and introduced a graduated system where earners below $500,000 a year would pay less. Proposition 136, meanwhile, would have locked the flat rate at 4.4% for everyone.

For Denver-area households navigating rising costs — Colorado's Consumer Price Index stood at 336.9 in September 2026 according to federal data — the question of who pays what in state taxes was anything but abstract.

Colorado Economy at Election Time

• 4.1% — Colorado Unemployment Rate
• 4.2% — National Unemployment Rate
• 336.9 — Consumer Price Index
• $500K — Income threshold, Amendment 87

Four Claims You May Have Heard About This Ballot

Amendment 83 (hunting and fishing rights) would just protect a hobby — it's no big deal.

Verdict: mixed

Supporters framed it as protecting a Colorado tradition. But opponents argued that enshrining hunting and fishing rights in the state constitution could make it harder to restrict certain hunting practices in the future — a consequential constraint on wildlife management.

Amendment 86 (redistricting) would eliminate the existing congressional map process entirely.

Verdict: mostly false

The measure wouldn't eliminate the process — it would make mid-decade redrawing of congressional maps harder, requiring public hearings and Colorado Supreme Court approval outside the standard 10-year cycle. The goal was reducing gerrymandering opportunities.

Proposition 135 bans all gender-affirming care for minors in Colorado.

Verdict: mixed

The proposition specifically targeted surgeries that alter biological sex characteristics as a response to a minor's perception of sex or gender. It also prohibited using state and federal funding or insurance to cover those surgeries. It did not address all forms of gender-affirming care.

Proposition 137 raises taxes to fund wildfire conservation.

Verdict: mostly false

No new tax was created. Proposition 137 would redirect already-existing sales tax revenue from sporting goods — money already being collected — toward wildfire risk reduction efforts. The trade-off: smaller TABOR refund checks in some years.

How to Read Future Colorado Ballot Measures

1. Check whether it's an amendment or a proposition — Constitutional amendments (like those numbered 81–87) are harder to undo and change the state's foundational law. Propositions change statutes — which the legislature can revisit.
2. Look for the TABOR connection — If a measure affects state revenue, spending caps, or refund checks, TABOR is likely involved. That means any change requires a statewide vote and a 55% threshold to pass.
3. Find the competing measure — Colorado ballots sometimes include direct counter-proposals — like Amendment 87 and Proposition 136 on income taxes in 2026. Read both before deciding; they may be mutually exclusive.
4. Read what opponents say — Official ballot language describes what a measure does. The opposition case tells you the unintended consequences — like Amendment 82 critics warning it could strip local governments of energy regulation power.
5. Check the full results — Colorado's official election results are published by county and statewide. Denver7 aggregates them in real time so you can track every race and measure as votes come in.

Colorado has long been a ballot-measure-heavy state — the initiative and referendum process here is among the most active in the country. But 14 measures in a single midterm cycle is a significant load, touching nearly every domain of public life: criminal justice, public health, tax policy, education, transportation, conservation, and constitutional rights.

For Denver voters, the 2026 ballot was a reminder that midterm elections are rarely just about Congress. The measures Coloradans voted on Tuesday will shape state law, state spending, and in some cases, the state constitution — with effects that could outlast any single political cycle.

See the Full Colorado Election Results

• Live Colorado Election Results: Track every statewide race and all 14 ballot measures as results come in — updated in real time by Denver7.
• Official Ballot Measure Results: Colorado's official results for each ballot measure, including vote totals by county.

Sources & References

• Primary source: Denver7 — Óscar Contreras
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Colorado Unemployment Rate, September 2026, Seasonally Adjusted
• Colorado Official Election Results — Statewide ballot measure vote totals and county breakdowns