Coloradans may vote this November on whether to add a “fundamental right to know” to the state’s constitutional Bill of Rights — a move that would give citizens permanent, enforceable access to public records and government proceedings that lawmakers couldn’t weaken with a simple bill.
The proposed ballot initiative, filed in February 2026 by the Independence Institute and the League of Women Voters of Colorado, would amend Article II of the state constitution to establish a right to know the affairs of all levels of state and local government. Government bodies could close meetings or restrict records only if they demonstrate that individual privacy or another state interest clearly exceeds the need for transparency. Violations would carry a minimum fine of $1,000.
If it makes the ballot, the measure would need signatures from at least 2 percent of voters in each of Colorado’s 35 state Senate districts. As a constitutional amendment, it would require 55 percent of the vote to pass.
The push for constitutional protection did not emerge in a vacuum. It follows three consecutive legislative sessions in which transparency advocates say Colorado’s open-records and open-meetings frameworks were weakened or tested.
In March 2024, Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 24-157 into law, exempting state legislators from key provisions of the Colorado Open Meetings Law. The bill, sponsored by Senate President Steve Fenberg and House Speaker Julie McCluskie, allows lawmakers to discuss bills and public policy via email, text, or other electronic communications without triggering public meeting requirements.
In his signing statement, Polis said the bill would provide clarity to the Legislature as it seeks to resolve ambiguities around their own conduct under the open meetings law.
Critics were sharply opposed. Steve Zansberg, who leads the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition — an alliance of journalists, news organizations, and civic groups focused on government transparency — called the signing profoundly disappointing, noting that one branch of government had effectively exempted itself from transparency requirements. The League of Women Voters urged Polis to veto the measure.
The timing drew particular scrutiny. Polis signed the bill during National Sunshine Week — a week specifically intended to celebrate open government and public access to information.
In 2025, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 25-077, which would have extended the deadline for government agencies to respond to public records requests under the Colorado Open Records Act. The bill would have given agencies five working days instead of three for an initial response, plus additional extension time.
Polis vetoed the bill — his first veto of the 2025 session. In his veto letter, the governor wrote that it would be convenient for the executive branch to agree to weaken CORA, but as a representative for the people of Colorado, he supports more, not less, openness and transparency.
Polis also objected to the bill’s creation of different response timelines depending on who was making the request and why — effectively creating three classes of open records requests with government officials deciding which class applied.
State lawmakers considered overriding the veto but abandoned the effort when it became clear they lacked the two-thirds support needed in both chambers.
Now, in 2026, lawmakers are trying again. Senate Bill 26-107, introduced in February, is nearly identical to the vetoed 2025 measure — extending initial response times from three working days to five, and extension periods from seven additional days to 10. One notable change: the 2026 version removes an exemption for journalists that appeared in the 2025 bill, meaning all requesters would face the same extended timelines.
The ballot initiative’s proponents represent an unlikely alliance. The Independence Institute, which calls itself an “action tank” devoted to individual, economic, and journalistic freedom, is led by Jon Caldara and widely characterized as aligned with free-market conservative causes. The League of Women Voters of Colorado identifies as a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect voting rights, though the group also maintains policy positions on climate, healthcare, gun violence, and reproductive rights.
Beth Hendrix, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Colorado, said a healthy democracy requires informed understanding and public participation in government decision-making, calling the right to know fundamental.
Some 50 organizations have joined the coalition — groups that, on most policy questions, would find little shared political ground.
Currently, Colorado’s transparency protections exist entirely in statute — the Colorado Open Records Act and the Colorado Open Meetings Law. Because they are ordinary laws, they can be amended, weakened, or exempted by a simple majority vote in the legislature, as happened with SB 24-157 in 2024.
Placing transparency rights in the constitution’s Bill of Rights would change that calculus. Lawmakers could still write exemptions and procedures, but any restriction that failed to demonstrate a clear overriding interest — individual privacy or another compelling state interest — could be challenged and struck down by courts. The $1,000 minimum fine per violation would give the provision enforcement teeth that current law lacks.
The initiative must first pass through a comment and review period by the Legislative Council and Office of Legislative Legal Services before going to the state Title Board for approval. If approved, proponents begin collecting signatures across all 35 Senate districts. The timeline puts a potential ballot appearance in November 2026.
Meanwhile, SB 26-107 continues working its way through the legislature. Whether the governor would veto a third attempt at extending response deadlines — or whether the ballot initiative’s momentum changes the political calculation — remains an open question.
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