1970s

1971: The Nation’s First Sunshine Law. Required public business to be conducted in open meetings, elected officials to disclosure their financial interests, and lobbyists to report how much they spend on lobbying and on gifts to public officials.

1974: Transparency in Campaign Spending. This law established, for the first time in Colorado, that candidates and political committees must publicly disclose their campaign contributions and spending before an election. 

1976: The Nation’s First Sunset Law. This nationally acclaimed legislation was drafted by Common Cause members in Colorado and has been adopted by 35 other states. The law reviews and terminates government agencies that cannot justify their continued existence.

1980s

1984: Protecting Consumers. Colorado Common Cause worked with a broad coalition to create the Office of Consumer Counsel at the Public Utilities Commission, to represent residential, small business and agricultural utility ratepayers before the PUC.

1984: Motor Voter Law. Passed as a ballot initiative by the voters of Colorado, this law permits voter registration in driver license facilities. The measure significantly increased voter registration in Colorado: from 59% of eligible voters in 1984 to 82% in 1988. 

1988: Open Government Process. The GAVEL (Give A Vote to Every Legislator) Amendment prevents the arbitrary pocketing of bills by committee chairs, the killing of bills in the House Rules Committee, and the practice of the binding caucus (forcing lawmakers of the same party to vote together) prior to full floor debate. 

1990s

1991: Defending Accountability. Colorado Common Cause began legal action against the House majority caucus in 1989 for violation of the anti-binding caucus provision of GAVEL. In April 1991, Common Cause won a major victory in a Supreme Court decision determining the enforceability of this constitutional amendment. 

2000s

2001: Denver Ethics Code. Colorado Common Cause worked with the League of Women Voters and city council members to draft, lobby, and pass a stronger ethics code. The code permits citizens to file complaints, creates an ethics board with subpoena power, bans the hiring of family members, and restricts gifts.

2002: Statewide Campaign Finance Reform. Colorado Common Cause led the campaign to author, qualify and pass Amendment 27, a strong and comprehensive initiative that limits campaign contributions and spending, and ensures full disclosure of the money spent to influence our elections.  

2004: Holding Public Officials Accountable. Common Cause successfully challenged the State Treasurer’s advocacy on a ballot measure, setting an important precedent that elected officials cannot utilize public funds to advocate for or against an initiative.  

2005: Securing Elections. Colorado Common Cause led the effort to pass an election reform bill that would increase voter confidence. The bill created a voter verifiable paper trail, requires posting a post-election audit of electronic voting machines, and allows provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct to count for federal and statewide races. 

2006: Ethics in Government. Colorado Common Cause worked to draft and pass Amendment 41. This amendment bans gifts from lobbyists to legislators, places a $50 limit on gifts to public servants from non-lobbyists, creates an independent ethics board, and places a two-year revolving door restriction on legislators seeking to become lobbyists after they serve in the legislature.

2008: Safeguarding Our Elections. Colorado Common Cause was the lead plaintiff in the successful litigation to protect the right to vote for more than 40,000 Colorado voters wrongfully removed from the state’s voter rolls.

2010s

2011: Pushing Back on Citizens United. Colorado Common Cause led a coalition effort to pass a ballot measure in the City of Boulder that instructs its elected representatives to pass a US Constitutional amendment to state that corporations don’t have the same rights as real people and that spending money should not be considered a form of free speech. 

2012: Protecting the Vote. Just Vote! Colorado Election Protection (Just Vote) worked to ensure every eligible Coloradan could vote in the 2012 election. Just Vote recruited more than 400 volunteers on Election Day to observe election activities and inform voters about their rights. Just Vote also built a comprehensive website and ran a bilingual voter hotline to answer voters’ questions about voting, resolve problems, and gather information for future policy reforms. 

2012: Limiting Campaign Contributions. In the shadow of unprecedented spending in the wake of Citizens United, Colorado stood up to big money in politics. CCC led the coalition to pass Amendment 65, a state-wide ballot initiative instructing our congressional delegation to pass—and our state lawmakers to ratify—an amendment to the US Constitution allowing us to limit campaign contributions and spending. Amendment 65 was supported by 74% of voters. 

2013: Modernizing Our Elections. Colorado Common Cause played a central role in crafting and passing the Colorado Voter Access & Modernized Elections Act. The new law modernized our elections by mandating that all eligible voters receive a mail ballot, allowing voter registration through and on Election Day, and eliminating the “inactive failed to vote” voter status. 

2014: Better Internet Access. Colorado Common Cause worked with local partners in the City of Boulder to pass a ballot measure that frees the city from a burdensome state law and allows it to compete with private internet providers that were dragging their feet on improving speeds, capacity, and cost in the city. 

2016: Disclosure for School Board Elections. Just as the consequences of the Citizens United decision infiltrated our local school board races, we worked to pass strong disclosure on spending in school board elections. 

2018: Independent Redistricting Commissions. Colorado Common Cause worked with Fair Districts Colorado and People Not Politicians to draft and pass two referred ballot measures to establish independent commissions for congressional and legislative redistricting. We helped turn out voters to overwhelmingly approve Amendments Y and Z, successfully removing politicians from the process and putting the power over drawing new maps in the hands of everyday citizens. 

2019: Expanding Automatic Voter Registration at the DMV and to Medicaid. Colorado Common Cause helped design and advocate for the passage of post-transaction opt-out AVR at the DMV, dramatically increasing the number of Coloradans registered to vote. The bill also expanded AVR to the Medicaid application process. 

2020s

2020: Engaging Colorado’s Communities in the 2020 Census & Ending Prison Gerrymandering. Amid the outbreak of COVID-19 and widespread shutdown, Colorado Common Cause educated and empowered Coloradans in the 2020 Census. We created grassroots community districting teams in Larimer and Weld counties, alongside our work to pass a bill prohibiting prison gerrymandering. 

2021: Multilingual Ballot Access. Colorado Common Cause passed a first-of-its-kind law to require that counties provide ballots in languages other than English based on census data, and to establish a statewide hotline for ballot translation. As a result of the law, 20 counties now provide Spanish ballots.