Enjoy reading and deciding on the 14 statewide ballot measures in Colorado’s upcoming election. If Constitutional Amendment 85 passes, there will be no more ballot measures in the next election, or in any election. Zippo. Zilch. Amendment 85 reads: “Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution . . . requiring all state and local ballot questions to be written in plain language and at no more than an 8th-grade reading level . . .?”
Even laying aside the dumbing down of 8th grade reading in much of public education.
Even assuming that ballot writers understand, in theory, what “plain language” is.
Not to worry. Just go read the 14 statewide measures or your ballot. I defy anyone to say that the authors of ballot measures could possibly formulate one on an 8th-grade reading level. Plain language. Right. Just like Constitutional Amendment 87:
“ . . . AMENDING THE TAXPAYER’S BILL OF RIGHTS TO ELIMINATE THE CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENT FOR ALL TAXABLE NET INCOME TO BE TAXED AT ONE RATE WITH NO ADDED TAX ON INCOME, ESTABLISHING VARIOUS INCOME TAX RATES BASED ON THE AMOUNT OF TAXABLE INCOME EARNED BY INDIVIDUALS, ESTATES, TRUSTS, AND CORPORATIONS, WHILE MAINTAINING THE CURRENT 4.4% ON INCOMES FROM THE SALE OF A PRINCIPAL RESIDENCE, WHICH WILL RESULT IN THE ESTIMATED CHANGE IN INCOME TAXES OWNED BY INDIVIDUALS IDENTIFIED IN THE FOLLOWING TABLE; AND AUTHORIZING THE STATE TO RETAIN AND SPEND . . .”
Please, show me an eighth grader who could rewrite this in plain language.
Then show me an adult ballot writer who could rewrite this in “plain language at no more than an 8th-grade reading level.”
There is no ballot writer who can do that.
So, if Amendment 85 passes, there will be no more statewide ballots. No one could write them.
Not that the unplain language plague is limited to the 14 statewide ballots. Enjoy this more localized ballot measure:
“SHALL FRONT RANGE [note: undefined] PASSENGER RAIL DISTRICT TAXES BE INCREASED . . . IN ORDER TO . . . INVEST IN STATION AREA [note: undefined] IMPROVEMENTS AND LOCAL CONNECTIONS TO RAIL STATIONS [also undefined] BY ESTABLISHING A 0.333% SALES AND USE TAX (EQUAL TO ONE THIRD OF A PENNY ON A $1 PURCHASE) . . .”
If adult voters can’t figure out that “0.333%” = “one third,” surely 8th graders can’t, either. So just who is able to write these future ballots “at no more than an 8th-grade reading level?”
Talk about a loophole the size of the proverbial Mack truck. Eighth grade in which school? Eighth grade level according to which standardized test — or, if you don’t like standardized tests, according to what other criterion? Eighth grade level to be determined by whom?
Clearly, Amendment 85 opens up every future ballot to disqualification on the grounds of subjectivity.
Or, is a judge — one of our highest educated citizens — supposed to be the final arbiter of 8th grade? That’s what he went to law school for? Clearly, the author of Amendment 85 didn’t consider the unplain implications of the demand for “plain language,”and, my guess is, judges can’t remember what level they learned at in 8th grade, anyway.
Not to mention, plain language has been forgotten. No one has spoken it since the late President Harry S Truman. Check out this introduction to all of the ballot measures in Colorado this year: “A ‘yes/for’ vote on any ballot question is a vote in favor of changing current law or existing circumstances . . .” Duh, ya think?
By the way, how about a Constitutional Amendment banning the use of all capital letters in Constitutional Amendments?
But not to worry. All infelicities, unclarities, awkwards, subjectivities and unplainnesses are generously cleared up in none other than the plainly titled “Legislative Council of the Colorado General Assembly Research Publication No. 842-1,” entitled “2026 State Ballot Information Booklet.”
Booklet?
It’s 130 pages long.
Yep, a booklet.
And each page is not booklet-sized. It’s bigger: 8.5” x 11”.
Research Publication No. 842-1 helpfully explains Constitutional Amendment 87 (on higher taxes? on lower taxes?), partially quoted above, in another four-and-a-half bigger-than-book pages, complete with a summary, an analysis, 5 Tables, 5 fiscal impacts, arguments for and against — at least not in ALL CAPS.
Enjoy deciding how to vote on this election’s umpteen ballot measures — a pleasant evening reading of the non-8th-grade-level, unplain “2026 State Ballot Information Booklet,” 130 pages short.
P.S. Can someone who doesn’t know the difference between a book and a booklet be trusted to write a ballot measure on the 8th-grade level?
P.P.S. Deep apologies to all of you eighth graders out there who no doubt are smarter than the authors of Amendment 85, of Amendment 87, and of said Legislative Council of the Colorado General Assembly Research Publication No. 842-1 booklet.
Amen.
© IJN 2026
