Amendment 76 is deceitful
To vote in Colorado, you must be an American citizen. Period. That should be the end of the conversation about immigrants ( those who came here legally but have not yet become naturalized citizens and those who came her illegally and are unable to become citizens) voting.
Except some are intent on using the threat of non- citizen voters as a scare tactic to drum up voter participation.
So, let’s have the argument about the unnecessary Amendment 76 on this fall’s ballot.
The Colorado Constitution says: “Every citizen of the United States who has attained the age of 18 years, has resided in this state for such time as may be proscribed by law, and has been duly registered as a voter if required by law shall be qualified to vote at all elections.”
Proponents of Amendment 76 want to change the first words to say “Only a citizen.” They argue that the Constitution, as it is now written, sets a minimum floor for who is guaranteed the right to vote, but it allows others to vote if Colorado’s law is made more permissive.
For example, House Bill 1278 was passed by lawmakers in 2019 to allow 17- year- olds who would turn 18 before the general election in a given year to participate in that primary election or caucus. The act made several changes to election law, but if Amendment 76 passes, it likely would nullify allowing 17year- olds to vote before they turn 18.
Additionally, there has been a so- farunsuccessful effort to allow citizens as young as 16 to vote in school board elections. That would likely be made impossible if the language of the Constitution is tweaked.
The fear is that if laws can be created to allow people younger than 18 to vote, then a law allowing non- citizens to vote would be upheld by the courts. We have found young Coloradans to be thoughtful and conscientious members of our society. We are not dismayed by efforts to allow the next generation to participate a little earlier in democracy.
And we do not believe there is an effort afoot now, nor would there ever be one, to give non- citizens the ability to vote in Colorado.
But we do know that thousands of young Coloradans jumped at the opportunity to select the candidates they hoped to see on the ballot in the general election this year.