"Medical aid in dying" makes November ballot
So far, three citizen initiatives have been deemed sufficient
DENVER, August 15, 2016 -- Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams announced today that a proposal that would allow terminally ill Coloradans to obtain a prescription drug to bring about their deaths will be on the ballot this November.
Backers of the "Medical Aid in Dying" proposal on Aug. 4. submitted their signatures. A 5-percent random sample of the submitted signatures projected the number of valid signatures to be greater than 110 percent of the total number of signatures required for placement on the ballot.
Petition verification summary:
| Total number of qualified signatures submitted | 155,676 |
| 5% of qualified signatures submitted (random sample) | 7,784 |
| Total number of entries accepted (valid) from the random sample | 5,439 |
| Total number of entries rejected (invalid) from the random sample | 2,345 |
| Number of projected valid signatures from the random sample | 108,777 |
| Total number of signatures required for placement on ballot | 98,492 |
| Projected percentage of required valid signatures | 110.44% |
The "aid in dying" measure, which would change state law, is the third citizens' initiative to successfully make the ballot. Initiative No. 145 permits" mentally capable" Colorado adults who have been diagnosed with an illness and have less than six months live to self-administer a drug that would cause their death.
The other proposals approved for the Nov. 8 ballot are "ColoradoCare" and Minimum Wage. ColoradoCare increases taxes $25 billion annually in the first full year and uses the money to establish a health-care payment system. The minimum-wage measure incrementally increases the minimum wage to $12 per hour effective 2020, and annually adjusts it for cost-of-living increases. Both proposals would amend Colorado’s constitution.
Six other proposals that were turned into the Secretary of State are still being tabulated. They are:
- Requirements for constitutional amendments: No. 96
- New cigarette and tobacco taxes: No. 143
- Primary elections: No. 98
- Presidential primary election: No. 140
- Local government authority to regulate oil-and-gas development: No. 75
- Mandatory setback for oil/gas development: No. 78
Also on the ballot are two measures referred by the Colorado General Assembly: Amendment T, regarding servitude, and Amendment U, regarding property taxes. In addition, the Denver Metro Scientific and Cultural Facilities Board put Ballot Issue 4B (PDF), a sales-and-use tax measure, on ballots in the following counties: Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Boulder, Denver, Douglas (except Castle Rock and Larkspur) and Jefferson.
