Last week a ballot measure was submitted that would severely impact a large majority of Colorado voters from here on out.
The West Group turned in the required number of signatures to place Initiative #362, Mail Ballot Voter Identification, on Colorado’s November 2026 statewide ballot.
If passed into law, this initiative would require voters to provide both their signature and an identification number. For example: the last four digits of their Social Security Number (SSN), a Colorado REAL ID number or driver’s license number, or the last four digits of another Colorado identification number meeting federal REAL ID requirements.
In addition, Initiative 362 would require election officials to compare the information submitted by voters to the statewide voter registration database in order to scope out information discrepancies.
Defend Our Ballots responded on Wednesday, July 22, warning that the measure would unnecessarily harm voters and would ultimately cause damage to Colorado’s top-ranked vote by mail system for voter turnout, participation, transparency, and security.
If approved by voters, the aforementioned initiative would impose unnecessary burden on voting individuals with these new ID and documentation requirements. It would reportedly also shorten ballot return windows and make it more difficult for individuals trying to correct—or “cure”— a ballot flagged for follow up.
Supporters of the measure describe the changes as “reform.”
However, several experts and community leaders claim that the measure would achieve the opposite result. Raising costs, slowing down election counting operations, and creating higher privacy and security risks for voters. As well as disenfranchise senior citizens, rural residents, voters with disabilities, and working families who depend solely on mail-in ballots.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s office will now conduct signature verification on the validity of the submitted petition signatures.
The overall process is expected to take between two to three weeks.
Then if enough signatures are confirmed valid, Initiative #362 will officially qualify for the November 2026 ballot. This will leave Defend Our Ballots, and its coalition partners, a very narrow window of time with which to organize before ballots go out in the fall.
Colorado already tracks every ballot from the moment it is printed to the moment it is processed for counting, a system that empowers voters to follow their own ballot in real time.
Defend Our Ballots argues the initiative adds no meaningful security value while forcing voters to hand over more sensitive personal information—expanding, rather than shrinking, the risk of identity theft.
Colorado voters cast 94% of their ballots by mail in 2024, and the state has ranked in the top 3 states nationally in voter turnout and engagement for 10 years running.
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