What Do the 14 Colorado Ballot Measures Mean for Douglas County?

The back half of your ballot is fourteen statewide questions, and thirteen of them got there by petition, the most citizen initiatives on one Colorado ballot since 1974, per Colorado Newsline's count. Nearly half come from one group, Advance Colorado, which does not disclose its donors. Below is each one in plain English, and after each, the part the statewide guides skip: what it does here. We link to a full page on the measures with the biggest local effect as we publish them.

Amendment 81: reporting immigration status to federal authorities

Requires law enforcement to notify federal immigration authorities when they charge someone who cannot be confirmed as lawfully present with a violent crime, or with any crime if the person has a prior felony. Backer: Advance Colorado. Needs 55 percent.

In Douglas County: this is the fight the county government has been having for two years. The commissioners sued the state in 2024 over laws limiting local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, and the sheriff and district attorney sued again in January over U visa certifications. Sheriff Darren Weekly, who is unopposed on this same ballot, would be the one doing the notifying. Expect the county's elected officials to campaign for it. Full page on Amendment 81.

Amendment 82: a constitutional right to natural gas

Puts in the constitution that "consumers have the right to purchase natural gas for cooking or heating in homes or businesses throughout the state," and a matching right for distributors to sell it. Backer: Advance Colorado. Needs 55 percent.

In Douglas County: the county is adding new homes by the thousand in Sterling Ranch, Dawson Trails, the Canyons and eastern Parker, in Xcel and Black Hills service areas. The measure is aimed at cities that have restricted gas hookups in new construction; no Douglas County town has. The practical effect here is to take that option off the table for future councils. Full page on Amendment 82.

Amendment 83: a right to hunt and fish

Adds a constitutional right to hunt and fish by traditional methods and establishes hunting and fishing as "the preferred means of managing fish and wildlife populations." Backer: the Vote Yes on 83 committee, $1.8 million raised through September 21, its largest contributor the Virginia-based Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance at $412,000, per Colorado Politics. Needs 55 percent.

In Douglas County: The measure would not open county open space to hunting; local rules still apply. Its main effect is on future ballot measures like the 2024 attempt to ban mountain lion hunting, which failed, and which would become harder to pass.

Amendment 84: ID numbers on your mail ballot envelope

Requires you to sign and also write the last four digits of your Social Security number or Colorado driver's license or ID number on the outside of your mail ballot envelope for any federal or state election, lets you correct missing or incorrect information, including with alternative forms of identification, and bars the clerk from counting the ballot until the problem is fixed. Backer: Coalition for American Prosperity and Growth. Needs 55 percent.

In Douglas County: the Clerk and Recorder who would implement it, Sheri Davis, is on this ballot against Jim Oehler. The county already sends cure letters for signature problems (deadline November 12 this year); under 84 there would also be a cure for missing or wrong digits, and the ballot could not be counted until it is fixed. Ask both clerk candidates how they would run it. Full page on Amendment 84.

Amendment 85: ballot questions in plain language

Requires all state and local ballot questions to be written in plain language at no more than an eighth-grade reading level, and bars a state statute from requiring language in citizen-initiated questions that conflicts with that. Backer: Advance Colorado. Needs 55 percent.

In Douglas County: read Questions 200, 201 and 1A on the local part of this same ballot and you will understand the appeal. The ballot title says it applies to all state and local ballot questions, so county-referred questions like those would be covered.

Amendment 86: locking in redistricting rules

Requires that any mid-decade redistricting be approved by both the independent redistricting commission and the Colorado Supreme Court, and prohibits maps "drawn purposefully to favor one political party." Backer: Advance Colorado. Needs 55 percent.

In Douglas County: the county is already split between two congressional districts (the 4th for most of it, the 6th for Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree) by the current commission's 2021 map. This would make it harder for either party to redraw that before 2031.

Amendment 87: a graduated income tax

Replaces the 4.4 percent flat income tax with six brackets, from 3.7 percent on the first $25,000 of taxable income to 8.4 percent above $1 million, starting in 2027. Backers say 97 percent of filers get a small cut and the top 3 percent pay more; the state's fiscal statement on the ballot puts the net increase at about $2.7 billion a year for schools, health care and child care. Backer: Protect Colorado's Future Coalition. Because it repeals constitutional language rather than adding it, it needs only a simple majority. A lawsuit filed September 16 in Denver District Court seeks to disqualify it over petition-circulator paperwork.

In Douglas County: this is the measure with the most money on the line here, in both directions. Douglas County has the highest median household income of Colorado's 64 counties, about $145,700, which puts the typical household squarely in the bracket that gets a $325 cut. It also has more households above $500,000 than almost anywhere in the state, and those pay thousands more. What Amendment 87 means for Douglas County, with the math by income.

Proposition NN: more money for K-12 by raising the TABOR cap

The legislature's one referral. Raises the limit on revenue the state may keep under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, without a new tax, to grow K-12 funding about 2 percent a year for ten years, roughly $500 million a year by Newsline's estimate. Smaller TABOR refunds are the cost. Simple majority.

In Douglas County: DCSD is asking you for a $54 million local override on the same ballot (Ballot Issue 5A). NN would add state money on top; 5A is local money. They are not either-or, and the district's per-pupil gap with Cherry Creek and Littleton is about both. Full page on Proposition NN.

Proposition 132: fentanyl penalties

Makes possession of any amount of fentanyl a felony, requires 8 to 32 years in prison for distributing any amount, and narrows the off-ramps: Good Samaritan reductions go away for distribution, a possession felony over one gram can no longer be reduced, and under one gram treatment is mandatory, with the felony reducible to a misdemeanor on completing it. Backer: Advance Colorado. Simple majority.

In Douglas County: District Attorney George Brauchler, whose 23rd Judicial District covers the county, would be the one charging under it, and the county jail and the district's treatment courts would absorb the change. Brauchler and Weekly both publicly support 132. Full page on 132 and 133.

Proposition 133: life without parole for child sex trafficking

Raises the sentence for child sex trafficking from the current 8 to 48 years to mandatory life without parole. Backer: Protect Kids Colorado. Simple majority.

In Douglas County: the same DA and courts. The measure removes judicial discretion in a category of case that is rare in this district but not unknown.

Proposition 134: school sports by biological sex

Requires school and college teams to be designated male, female or coed, with participation based on "the participant's sex as determined by certain aspects of their biological reproductive system," in the ballot title's words; the measure defines male and female by whether a person's reproductive system is organized around producing sperm or ova, which excludes transgender students from teams matching their gender identity. Backer: Protect Kids Colorado. Simple majority.

In Douglas County: it would override DCSD's and the Colorado High School Activities Association's current policies at every public high school in the county, including the district's charters. The DCSD board discussed, but never voted on, a policy like this at its final meeting in November 2025, and no Douglas County school was among the eight that sued CHSAA and settled in December 2025. Full page on Proposition 134.

Proposition 135: surgeries on minors to alter sex characteristics

Prohibits health care providers from performing surgery on minors "for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics" and bars state funds, including Medicaid, from paying for such procedures. Backer: Protect Kids Colorado. Simple majority.

In Douglas County: the largest pediatric hospital campus in the county is Children's Hospital Colorado's South Campus in Highlands Ranch. Children's Hospital Colorado has stated it has never performed these surgeries on patients under 18, so the measure's direct effect there is on the funding and insurance provisions. Full page on Proposition 135.

Proposition 136: cap the income tax at 4.4 percent

Caps the state income tax rate at the current 4.4 percent. Its purpose is to block Amendment 87. If both pass, the general rule is that the one with more yes votes controls where they conflict, though the Blue Book says the exact outcome is unclear and the legislature or a court would resolve it. Backer: Advance Colorado. Simple majority.

In Douglas County: the mirror image of 87. If you are voting on one, you are voting on both. What Proposition 136 means for Douglas County.

Proposition 137: sporting-goods tax money for conservation and wildfire

Exempts the sales tax the state already collects on sporting goods from the TABOR limit so it can be spent on conservation and wildfire mitigation. Backer: The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups. Simple majority.

In Douglas County: the county spent August under Stage 1 fire restrictions, is building a helitack base, and has one of the state's largest open space programs. It would be a direct beneficiary of a state wildfire mitigation fund. The cost is, again, smaller TABOR refunds. Full page on Proposition 137.

And one more, not statewide: Ballot Issue 7A, Front Range Passenger Rail

Below the fourteen statewide questions, ballots in the Sterling Ranch metropolitan districts carry Ballot Issue 7A from the Front Range Passenger Rail District: a 0.333 percent sales and use tax, one third of a penny on a dollar purchase, raising $295,000,000 a year, plus $580,000,000 in debt with a repayment cost of $785,000,000, to build and run Colorado Connector passenger rail service from Pueblo to Fort Collins. Gasoline, food, residential electricity and gas, prescription drugs and medical supplies are exempt under the ballot language.

In Douglas County: the ballot names Sterling Ranch as one of the stations, between Colorado Springs and Littleton. It is a district question, not one of the fourteen statewide measures, and in Douglas County only Sterling Ranch voters get it: the district's boundary here was redrawn to those metropolitan districts by SB26-172 this spring, so nobody else in the county votes on the train.

How to read the Blue Book

The Legislative Council's Blue Book has the official fiscal analysis and arguments for and against each measure, written by nonpartisan staff. It is the single best thing to read before you fill in this half of the ballot, and it mails to every active voter. Where our summaries above and the Blue Book differ, trust the Blue Book, and tell us.

More: every race and measure on your ballot and the full November ballot guide. We do not tell you how to vote on measures; we tell you what they do here.