Voters appeared unlikely to approve a constitutional amendment to move up a number of electoral deadlines and give Colorado county clerks more time to prepare ballots in future election cycles.
Amendment K, referred to the ballot by the state legislature earlier this year, trailed with just 45% of votes in favor at 11:48 p.m., but The Associated Press had not yet called the race. It needs 55% of the vote to pass.
The changes were requested by election administrators across the state, who say the current deadlines leave county officials a matter of days to prepare hundreds of possible ballot combinations, translate them into different languages and check them for errors before they have to be mailed to military and overseas voters.
Under the amendment, supporters of citizen-led ballot initiatives would be required to submit petitions one week earlier in order to qualify for the ballot. This year’s deadline was Aug. 5. The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office gets 30 days after that to verify signatures before ballots can be set.
If it passes, state judges would also have to declare their intent to seek another term a week sooner. The legislature voted 95 to 1 to approve Senate Concurrent Resolution 2, which placed the question on the ballot. But because the deadlines are enshrined in the state constitution, state lawmakers couldn’t change them without voter approval.