Thirty-three committees registered to support and oppose the eleven measures that appeared on the Nov. 3 ballot in Colorado.
The 33 committees raised $59,164,321.52 and spent $57,392,791.82 according to reports due on November 2 that covered election information through October 28. The next regular reports are due on December 3.
Eight of these 11 measures on the ballot were placed on the ballot through citizen petition drives. These measures concern issues like wolf reintroduction, abortion restrictions, citizenship requirements for voting, a national popular vote, paid medical leave, gambling and taxes. The other three measures were referred to the ballot by the legislature.
The campaigns that raised the most money won in all cases — except Proposition 116 to decrease the state income tax rate, where supporters raised $1.55 million and opponents raised more than double that amount, though that measure was approved by Colorado voters.
Three Colorado ballot measures (Amendment C concerning charitable bingo, Proposition 114 concerning wolves and Proposition 117 concerning state enterprises) were too close to call as of Friday afternoon.
The measure with the highest amount of contributions was Proposition 115, which would have prohibited abortions after 22 weeks of gestational age.
This measure was defeated. Opponents of Proposition 115 raised over $9.5 million, while the proposition’s supporters raised nearly $690,000.
The other top most expensive measures in Colorado in 2020 were:
- Proposition 118 to create a state-run paid medical and family leave program, which was (approved):
- Support — $8,918,452.11
- Opposition — $785,423.2
- Proposition EE to create a tobacco and vaping products tax to fund health and education programs (approved):
- Support — $4,711,452.39
- Opposition — $4,410,902.45
- Amendment B to repeal the Gallagher Amendment and freeze current property tax rates (approved):
- Support — $7,311,344.10
- Opposition — $722,140.10
So far in 2020, Ballotpedia has tracked $1.18 billion in contributions to committees supporting or opposing the 129 statewide measures in 2020. Colorado currently ranks fourth among states with the highest ballot measure campaign contributions, behind California ($739.0 million), Illinois ($121.2 million) and Massachusetts ($61.6 million). These numbers and the total dollar-amount will continue to grow based on post-election campaign finance reports.
The most expensive ballot measure in 2020 was California Proposition 22 concerning app-based drivers and relevant labor policies. A total of $223 million was spent on the measure ($203 million by supporters and $20 million by opponents). The measure was approved.
In 2018, Ballotpedia tracked $1.19 billion in contributions to the ballot measure campaigns supporting and opposing the 167 certified 2018 measures. Campaigns supporting and opposing the 13 statewide ballot measures on the 2018 ballot in Colorado raised $70.4 million, making Colorado the state with the sixth-highest ballot measure campaign contributions in 2018. In the Ballotpedia tracking, California ballot measures were first at $369 million in contributions.
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