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Amendment 85 requires Colorado state and local ballot questions to use plain language at no more than an eighth-grade reading level. It also prevents state law from forcing citizen initiatives to use wording that conflicts with that rule. The goal is simple: help every Colorado voter understand their ballot choice.
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Amendment 85 puts a clear language standard in Colorado’s Constitution. State and local ballot questions must use plain language at no more than an eighth-grade reading level. State law also cannot force citizen initiatives to use wording that conflicts with that rule. The measure does not tell anyone how to vote or decide what future ballot measures do. It focuses on the words voters see when making a choice. Because Amendment 85 changes the state constitution, it needs at least 55% approval. Colorado voters will decide in 2026. Always read the linked official sources before making your own voting decision.
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Colorado voters make important choices on taxes, public services, rights, and changes to state law. The question printed on a ballot should help people understand those choices. Long ballot sentences and technical legal wording can make it harder for voters to see clearly what a measure means.
Amendment 85 adds a clear standard to the Colorado Constitution. State and local ballot questions must use plain language at no more than an eighth-grade reading level. State law also cannot require citizen initiatives to use wording that conflicts with that clarity rule.
The amendment is about how ballot questions are written. It does not tell anyone how to vote. It does not decide what future measures do. It does not create a new state agency. Its two-sentence text also does not name a specific readability formula or a new decision-maker. Those implementation details must be handled in a clear, consistent, and public way.
Colorado already took a step toward more accessible ballot language through HB26-1320. Amendment 85 goes further, putting an explicit eighth-grade limit in the state constitution. Because it is a constitutional amendment, it needs at least 55% approval.
Amendment 85 is certified for Colorado’s 2026 ballot. Voters deserve to see what it changes, ask how the standard works, and read the official source documents before making a decision. Clear ballot questions give every voter a fairer chance to understand the choice in front of them. Official sources are linked below so that every voter can read the exact certified language.
Official sources
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Amendment 85: Initiative #234, Plain Language Ballot Questions
Colorado Secretary of State
Initiative #234 Final Text
Colorado Secretary of State
Initiative #234 Fiscal Impact Statement
Colorado General Assembly
HB26-1320: Accessible Language Statutory Ballot Title Requirements
Colorado General Assembly
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Use this outline in a community voter guide or briefing. It separates what the measure does, what it does not do, and which implementation questions still deserve attention.
Download the source-backed fact sheetWhat it would do
Questions on your ballot must be written in plain language.
Questions on your ballot must be written at an 8th grade reading level.
Politicians must follow the same requirements when adding language to ballot questions.
What it would not do
How it would be applied
Sourced FAQ
These answers name what the amendment says and where implementation details still matter.
Yes, unfortunately it is. Ballotpedia found that Colorado’s statewide ballot-measure titles averaged a 27th-grade reading level. That is a formula-based estimate of sentence and word complexity, not proof that a voter needs 27 years of school. It reinforces a simple point: Colorado voters should not need an advanced degree to understand their ballots. The Colorado Title Board’s ballot questions are the most complicated in the country. We should be ashamed.
Sources: Readability analysis (external link)
Plain language is a way of writing that is meant to be understood by a wide audience. For ballot questions it includes avoiding legal, technical, or specialized words, clearly identifying the proposed change in law, avoiding unnecessary double negatives, qualifiers, and overly complex phrasing, and making what a yes or no vote means easily understood. Colorado’s 2026 accessible-language law puts that standard into the Title Board’s drafting rules.
Sources: Enacted legislation (external link)
Every voter deserves a ballot they can understand and a voice that counts, no matter their education, their first language, or a disability. Plain language puts the actual choice up front, an eighth-grade ceiling means less time decoding dense legal jargon, and Amendment 85 would create one clear standard for every state and local ballot question in Colorado.
Sources: Final initiative text (external link), Draft ballot analysis (external link)
There are several common ways to measure the reading level required to understand a piece of writing, such as the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test or the SMOG Index (Simple Measure of Gobbledygook). New York’s plain-language ballot law picked an existing test, the Automated Readability Index, and set eighth grade as the target. Amendment 85 doesn’t lock the state into one test or the other. Its two-sentence text does not name a formula, so experts, community advocates, and the public will help design the evaluation process during implementation. Colorado’s existing Title Board process will select and apply a transparent, consistent method.
Sources: Final initiative text (external link), Fiscal impact statement (external link), Readability analysis (external link), Enacted legislation (external link)
The existing Title Board decides. Colorado’s fiscal analysis identifies the board as the body that sets the plain-language and eighth-grade standards and applies them when setting titles for citizen ballot measures. It includes representatives from the Secretary of State, Attorney General, and General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Legal Services. Its titles can be challenged and reviewed in court, the same as today.
Sources: Fiscal impact statement (external link), Official initiative process (external link)
Colorado has long had laws on the books calling for ballot questions to be written clearly and concisely. Unfortunately, competing laws and court cases have given us some of the longest and most complicated ballot questions in the country. Clearly, the laws we have are not working. HB26-1320 already establishes an accessible-language standard in state law, but a future legislature can amend or repeal it. Amendment 85 separately places a plain-language and eighth-grade standard in the Constitution, where no future legislature can quietly walk it back. Because it sits in the Constitution, changing it takes a future ballot measure.
Sources: Final initiative text (external link), Enacted legislation (external link)
No. Proposition GG requires citizen initiatives that change the state individual income-tax rate to show a table with eight income categories on petitions and ballots. HB21-1321 separately requires certain tax-revenue language in initiative titles. Amendment 85 does not repeal either law or mention taxes. Its text says, “No statute may interfere with this provision by mandating language preceding, following, or in a ballot title of an initiative.” It does not prohibit tax information that complies with the plain-language and reading-level rule. The existing Title Board, rehearing, and court-review process handles how the requirements apply together.
Sources: Final initiative text (external link), Draft ballot analysis (external link), Official ballot analysis (external link), Enacted legislation (external link), Official initiative process (external link)
VoteYesOn85.org is paid for by African Leadership Group Action. Registered Agent: Noah Stout. Amendment 85 is endorsed by over 35 community organizations and leaders, including African Leadership Group, Courageous Colorado, and community supporters across the political spectrum. See the full supporter list at VoteYesOn85.org.
Sources: Support statement (external link)
Voters, election officials, and advocates across the political spectrum agree that Colorado’s ballot questions are too complicated. Amendment 85 is a basic good-government reform that makes Colorado’s elections more transparent and more accountable, regardless of party.
Sources: Support statement (external link), Final initiative text (external link)
Yes. This measure is supported by conservatives and progressives alike. Campaign-listed organizations include African Leadership Group, Courageous Colorado, Let Colorado Vote, Faithful Witness for Democracy, Colorado Concern, AYA Foundation, Blacktie America, Society of Ethiopians of Denver, CEELA, Dayton Street Opportunity Center, Urban Colors, County Collectives Inc., Village Exchange Center, Transform Education Now, Africa Development Promise, Refugees + Immigrants United, Ethiopian Heritage Foundation, Colorado Black Women for Political Action, and Greater Metropolitan Denver Ministerial Alliance (GMDMA), which issued a statement of support for Amendment 85 in October 2026. Individual supporters include Colorado’s first Black Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll, immigrant rights leader Papa Dia, civic leader, former election official, and co-author of When Women Vote Amber McReynolds, progressive strategist Deep Singh Badhesha, and the community leaders listed in the full supporter roster at VoteYesOn85.org.
Sources: Support statement (external link), Final initiative text (external link), Support statement (external link)
Yes. This measure is supported by conservatives and progressives alike. Campaign-listed organizations include African Leadership Group, Courageous Colorado, Let Colorado Vote, Faithful Witness for Democracy, Colorado Concern, AYA Foundation, Blacktie America, Society of Ethiopians of Denver, CEELA, Dayton Street Opportunity Center, Urban Colors, County Collectives Inc., Village Exchange Center, Transform Education Now, Africa Development Promise, Refugees + Immigrants United, Ethiopian Heritage Foundation, Colorado Black Women for Political Action, and Greater Metropolitan Denver Ministerial Alliance (GMDMA), which issued a statement of support for Amendment 85 in October 2026. Individual supporters include Colorado’s first Black Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll, immigrant rights leader Papa Dia, civic leader, former election official, and co-author of When Women Vote Amber McReynolds, progressive strategist Deep Singh Badhesha, and the community leaders listed in the full supporter roster at VoteYesOn85.org.
Sources: Support statement (external link), Final initiative text (external link), Support statement (external link)
Coloradans have the right to direct democracy and can place a change to our state’s laws or Constitution to a vote of the people. These are called citizens’ initiatives. The question that appears on a voter’s ballot asking for a “yes” or “no” vote on the change is the ballot question. Amendment 85 applies its clarity requirements to state and local ballot questions, including citizen-initiated measures, requiring those questions to be written in plain language, not legal jargon.
Colorado has a state Title Board comprised of three appointees: one from the Secretary of State’s office, one from the Attorney General’s office, and one from the Office of Legislative Legal Services. These three individuals write the ballot “title,” or “question,” that appears on voters’ ballots, with the help of public input. Serving on the Title Board is hard work, but its ballot questions are the most complicated in the country, and Colorado’s statewide ballot-measure titles average a 27th-grade reading level. For statewide citizen initiatives, the board sets the title and ballot title voters will see, and Amendment 85 prevents state statutes from requiring initiative-title wording that conflicts with its clarity rules.
Sources: Official initiative process (external link), Final initiative text (external link), Readability analysis (external link)
Amendment 85 governs how ballot questions are written, not what they say. It does not decide the policy in a future measure; it only prevents state laws from forcing wording that breaks its rules into citizen-initiative titles.
Amendment 85 is certified for the November 2026 ballot. Colorado voters will decide then. Because it would amend the Colorado Constitution, it needs at least 55% approval to pass. If approved, its plain-language and eighth-grade standard would become part of the Constitution.
Sources: Official ballot listing (external link), Final initiative text (external link)
Amendment 85 would amend the Colorado Constitution, which is why the official ballot listing requires at least 55% approval. Reaching that bar takes broad support, a yes vote from voters across the state.
Yes. The amendment says all state and local ballot questions, so it covers a city, county, school district, or special district question the same as a statewide one. Local bond and tax questions are some of the longest on any ballot. The tax and debt wording the Constitution already requires on those questions would stay, and the rest would have to be written plainly.
Sources: Final initiative text (external link), Colorado Constitution (external link)
Nothing in Amendment 85 requires one sentence. Colorado’s single-question habit comes from state law, which says a title must be in the form of a question a voter can answer yes or no. The easiest way to meet an eighth-grade standard is a short question up front and short sentences after it, which is how New York does it. The Title Board would set the format, as it does now. This all would be determined after the Amendment is passed.
Sources: Final initiative text (external link), Official initiative process (external link), Enacted legislation (external link)
Yes. Political scientists studied more than 1,200 statewide ballot questions over ten years and found that the harder a question was to read, the more voters left it blank. Readability was the second strongest predictor of voters skipping a measure, behind only whether it was on a primary ballot. A question a voter can’t follow is a vote that doesn’t get cast. In 2022, more than 313,000 Coloradans who cast a ballot left Amendment D blank, one voter in eight. In 2024, more than 260,000 skipped Proposition 131. Every election, tens of thousands of voters skip the questions they can't follow.
Sources: Peer-reviewed research (external link), Official election results (external link), Official election results (external link)
Everyone, but some voters more than others. A new citizen voting for the first time. A voter reading in a second language. A voter with a learning or vision disability. A voter who works two jobs and has 30 seconds for each question. Colorado’s ballot should work for all of them. A ballot you can’t read is a barrier to the vote, and Amendment 85 takes it down.
Sources: Support statement (external link), Final initiative text (external link)
Yes. Colorado's legislature has already treated ballot access this way. The 2021 multilingual ballot law gives voters who speak other languages a translated ballot and a hotline. The 2025 Colorado Voting Rights Act protects language access, voters with disabilities, and tribal voters, and lets the Attorney General enforce those rights. Both laws rest on the same idea: a ballot you can't read is a barrier to the vote. Amendment 85 applies that idea to every voter by requiring the English itself to be readable.
Sources: Enacted legislation (external link), Enacted legislation (external link), Final initiative text (external link)
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<p><strong>Amendment 85</strong> requires Colorado ballot questions to use plain language at no more than an eighth-grade reading level. <a href="https://voteyeson85.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Learn what it changes and read the official sources.</a></p>Keep the conversation going
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Colorado ballots should help voters understand the choice. Amendment 85 sets a plain-language, eighth-grade reading-level standard for state and local ballot questions. Learn what it changes and read the official sources.
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Amendment 85 asks a simple question: should Colorado ballot questions be written so more voters can understand them? The measure requires plain language at no more than an eighth-grade reading level while protecting citizen initiatives from conflicting wording rules. See how it works, what it does not do, and the questions that still deserve clear answers.
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A vote should not require a law degree. Amendment 85 puts a plain-language standard for ballot questions in Colorado’s Constitution. Help more voters understand the proposal: read the two-sentence text, explore the sourced FAQ, and share the facts with your community.