Resistance Radio: Strengthening Democracy Colorado

Strengthening Democracy Colorado is a 501 (c)4 non-profit which started in 2015, dedicated to improving the representativeness and integrity of Colorado’s government and its responsiveness to its citizens including tackling voter ID laws, gerrymandering and ballot access.

Jason Legg, one of the group’s founders says their latest project is a state-wide ballot initiative which would require that candidates for federal or statewide office file with the secretary of state copies of their income tax returns for at least the five most recent taxable years the returns were filed.

A bill that would have required all candidates for president to disclose their tax returns died during the 2017 state legislative session in Colorado.

Strengthening Democracy Colorado’s ballot measure has cleared the title hearing process and they are now ready to start gathering signatures. The ballot measure they are seeking to pass is a statutory proposal, not a constitutional amendment, so therefore not subject to restrictions on signatures that were imposed as a result of the passage of Amendment 71 (Raise the Bar.) However Legg says the passage of Amendment 71 has had a chilling effect on their measure, but impacting the public’s perception of the state-wide ballots . “Broadly speaking people see this and say “oh we’ve heard that it’s virtually impossible now,” and they are reluctant to get involved but in fact that’s not a hurdle that we have to deal with for this initiative.”