Colorado Supreme Court Rejects Attempt to Throw Out Voter Signatures for Amendment 87

By Alicia Caldwell

The Colorado Supreme Court on Friday upheld a Denver District Court ruling and rejected an attempt to throw out voter signatures for Amendment 87, the graduated income tax measure. Amendment 87 will remain on the ballot, and votes cast on it will be counted.

In its order, the court said:

The District Court’s October 21, 2026 Order rejecting Appellant’s Verified C.R.S. § 1-40-118(1) Protest and Complaint is AFFIRMED. Votes cast on Initiative 2025-2026 # 195 (also known as “Amendment 87”) shall be counted. The Court will issue an opinion in due course.

The ruling is the second time in two weeks that a court has turned away the challenge. On October 21, Denver District Court Judge Heidi Kutcher dismissed the challenge, finding that state law does not allow election officials to block a measure from the ballot over circulator registration issues. The Colorado Secretary of State’s office had argued in both courts that circulator registration oversights are handled through an administrative process and are not grounds for rejecting valid voter signatures.

The allegations centered on a relative handful of circulators who had not fully completed a five-step registration process, the last piece of which has only recently become a requirement.

The lawsuit was filed in September by Arapahoe County resident Michael A. Hancock, not to be confused with the former mayor of Denver, and was argued by a private legal team through two courts on an expedited schedule. The opponents of Amendment 87 have not disclosed who is paying those legal bills, and press coverage has described the opposition as powered by millions of untraceable dollars.

Protect Colorado’s Future coalition is paying for its own attorneys.

“Twice now, Colorado courts have said that more than 130,000 voters who signed this petition deserve to have their signatures count, and that Coloradans deserve to decide this question for themselves,” said Chris deGruy Kennedy, co-chair of Protect Colorado’s Future and president of the Bell Policy Center. “We acknowledge that there were some administrative oversights during the registration of some paid circulators, and we have been open about that from the start. The people behind this lawsuit have not been open about anything. They have spent what must be an enormous sum on lawyers to keep voters from having a say, and they still will not tell Colorado who they are or how much they have spent.”

“More than a million voters have cast their ballots while this case moved through the courts, and today’s ruling means their votes on Amendment 87 will count,” said Christina Soliz, co-chair of Protect Colorado’s Future and executive director of New Era Colorado. “The people funding this lawsuit chose to hide behind it instead of making their case to voters. Now the decision belongs to Colorado voters, which is where it always belonged.”

Under Amendment 87, people and businesses with less than about $500,000 in annual state taxable income would see their state income taxes go down, and taxes would rise marginally for incomes above half a million dollars.

Ballots must be received by 7pm on Election Day, November 3. Voters can find drop box locations and polling places at GoVoteColorado.gov. We urge voters to keep in mind that it is now too late to use the postal service to send their ballots.

About the PCF Coalition
Protect Colorado’s Future is a coalition of more than 100 organizations, including groups focused on education, healthcare, child care, food security, older adults, the environment, rural communities, and local government. Learn more at protectcoloradosfuture.com.