ColoradoHB26-11132026 Regular SessionHouseWALLET

Modifications to Elections

Sponsored By: Emily Sirota (Democratic), Jenny Willford (Democratic), Katie Wallace (Democratic), Mike Weissman (Democratic)

Signed by Governor

Elections & Redistricting

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

28 provisions identified: 15 benefits, 5 costs, 8 mixed.

More voting access during correctional transitions

People under Department of Corrections transitional status can register and vote, including those living in state-run facilities. People serving a felony sentence in confinement remain ineligible. A sheriff’s designee must arrange at least one in-person voting day for eligible confined voters during general elections. It must fall between 15 and 2 days before Election Day. Minimum hours are six for facilities with 100 or more beds, four for 50–99 beds, and three for 1–49 beds.

Voters gain registration safeguards and corrections

The law ends the process for one registered voter to challenge another person’s county registration, including related hearings and appeals. County clerks must provide printed affidavits to correct errors or unlawful changes or removal of party affiliation. Colorado’s statewide voter system must fully support geographic information data by July 1, 2029. Officials cannot use that data to decide voter eligibility, challenge registration, or restrict voting rights.

Voters get more accepted identification options

Voters can use a valid U.S. passport card or a Division of Youth Corrections identification card. Written correspondence from a county sheriff or designee also counts if it states the voter is confined in a county jail or detention facility.

State cancels long-inactive voter registrations

The Secretary of State, rather than the county clerk, must cancel qualifying inactive registrations. Cancellation applies when a voter has not updated the record, answered a confirmation card, or voted during two consecutive general elections after becoming inactive. The Secretary of State can request county help. Affected voters may need to register again.

College students get easier voting access

Colleges using online course registration must offer students a link to the Secretary of State’s voter registration website. Counties must place ballot drop boxes on qualifying campuses for presidential primaries and November coordinated elections. The enrollment threshold falls from 2,000 to 1,000 students at the institution. The campus must be in the county.

Earlier ballots and faster signature notices

Officials must mail ballots to active registered voters 29 to 25 days before elections, moving the window seven days earlier. If day 29 is a weekend, state legal holiday, or federal postal holiday, mailing can occur the preceding Friday. Separate federal rules apply to specified military and overseas voters. Clerks missing the two-day post-election deadline for required signature letters and forms must use overnight mail or hand delivery. For military and overseas voters, clerks must use the fastest available method.

Faster notices for missing voter identification

This rule covers returned mail ballots missing a required copy of voter identification. If the clerk misses the notice deadline of 2 days after Election Day, the letter needs faster delivery. The clerk must use overnight mail or hand delivery. For military and overseas voters, the clerk must use the fastest available method.

Petition signers can use mailing addresses

Election officials can accept a petition signature with a mailing address instead of a residence address. The official must find the signer’s statewide voter record and confirm that the signer was eligible to sign.

Petition signers provide fewer address details

Voters signing candidate-nomination, initiative, or referendum petitions no longer need to list their county. They must still provide their street address, city or town, and signing date.

Voters gain polling-place flexibility and protection

You can bring printed or written materials of your choice to a voter service and polling center while marking your ballot. The voter-interference offense covers conduct within 100 feet of buildings containing polling or drop-off locations. It also covers interference within 100 feet of a drop box voting area. Existing punishment remains in place.

Young people gain election participation options

Preregistered voters who turn 18 by the next election can update their information online during the preceding 120 days. Students can qualify as election judges at age 15, down from 16, without a junior-or-senior grade requirement. They must be in good standing and attend secondary school or be homeschooled at election time. Public high school principals or their designees can serve as registration liaisons if registered anywhere in Colorado, not just the school’s county.

Colleges must send students voting information

Covered colleges with online course registration must email each enrolled student voter eligibility and registration information. Emails go out during the first full week of fall semester and the last full week of spring semester. Election details must also arrive 15 days and 1 day before Election Day. Colleges without online registration must use other required methods, including prominent notices in the registrar's office. The Secretary of State sets the information's form and content. Colleges must send election-specific content to the county clerk before emailing or posting it.

Paid voting leave for Colorado workers

Eligible Colorado voters who work can take up to 2 paid hours to vote on days polling centers are open. Employers cannot fire or penalize them, or reduce their usual wages; hourly workers receive their regular pay. Workers must ask before the day they need leave. Employers choose the hours but must honor requests for leave at the start or end of a shift. Employers can deny leave when workers have at least 3 straight nonwork hours while polls are open.

Ballot counting gets backups and checks

The Secretary of State can authorize manual counting after consulting the election official when major problems make electronic counting impracticable. The standard no longer requires electronic counting to be impossible. Before certifying results, canvass boards must confirm that ballots have been reconciled. A board unable to certify by majority signature must send the uncertified results and a written explanation to the Secretary of State.

Four judges check hand-counted ballots

When a permitted or required hand count is used, four election judges must count each ballot. This applies during initial vote counting, post-election audits, and recounts. One judge reads each mark aloud; another watches and helps determine voter intent when needed. Two judges record votes separately, then the team compares and reconciles the forms.

Public polling plans and wait reports

The Secretary of State must release specified polling-center plan information by August 1. Counties must record Election Day waits at every voter service and polling center and report results within 30 days. If any reported wait exceeds 1 hour, the county must submit a detailed operational report within 90 days. The Secretary of State must post that report within 5 days of receiving it. Counties with these long waits must include prior-wait analysis and plans to avoid or reduce them in their election plans.

Candidates face stricter certification and filing

Candidates must meet office qualifications by the start of the term and swear that they will meet them. Officials cannot certify candidates lacking required proof of registration, residence, or property ownership, or failing objectively verifiable qualifications. Assembly designation certificates are due within four days after adjournment; sending a fax first and the original later is no longer allowed. Accepted candidates appear in three ballot groups: major-party, minor-party, then unaffiliated. Names within each group are ordered by lot.

Counties face earlier election planning deadlines

County clerks must send proposed plans for covered mail-ballot elections to the Secretary of State at least 120 days before voting. That replaces the 110-day deadline; the 90-day deadline for nonpartisan elections stays unchanged. Each county clerk must also set office hours that follow the election code and the Secretary of State’s rules and orders.

Counties must acquire electronic voting systems

Counties with at least 1,000 active voters as of the last general election must adopt electronic or electromechanical voting systems. The clerk must consult county commissioners, and the county board must acquire and maintain the system. The clerk oversees related staff, contractors, and vendors under state election rules.

Missed deadlines leave party nominations empty

A political party must fill a nomination vacancy by the legal deadline that applies to that nomination. If the party misses that deadline, the vacancy stays unfilled.

Counties share statewide voting license costs

If possible, the Secretary of State must negotiate one annual statewide license for a certified instant-runoff voting system. The Department of State Cash Fund pays for the license. Counties using that license must repay a share of its cost. Each share uses registered active voter counts in participating municipalities within the county, compared with the statewide participating total. The law states no dollar amount.

Election records rules change voter privacy

Election surveillance rules include systems that record continuously when motion is detected. Before public ballot inspection, officials do not have to hide identifying marks or messages voluntarily added by voters. Those messages can remain visible for public review, but voters who add them have less privacy protection.

House vacancies get election and nomination deadlines

The governor must set a U.S. House vacancy election within seven days. Vacancies arising 90 to 150 days before a scheduled statewide presidential primary, primary, or coordinated election join that election; otherwise, voting occurs 90 to 120 days after the vacancy. Separate vacancy elections follow general-election rules; combined elections follow the host election’s rules. Each party’s state chair must receive notice by email or mail, and party conventions must occur at least five days before ballot-content certification. Party nominations require an affidavit on the state form. Unaffiliated candidates can petition, with filings due by 5 p.m. on the tenth day before ballot-content certification.

Petitions gain deadlines but delayed inspection

The Secretary of State must decide initiative or referendum petition sufficiency within 60 calendar days after filing. For an upcoming ballot, the deadline is 30 calendar days after the filing deadline. A missed decision deadline makes the petition sufficient. Petitions can remain unavailable for public examination during review for up to those same limits, then become available for copying after a decision or automatic sufficiency. Registered voters can file a written, sworn protest within 15 days after a sufficiency statement is issued.

Post-primary replacements get fallback appointment rules

These rules cover nomination vacancies from the day after the primary through the first day general-election ballots can be mailed. Committees must mail meeting notices within 10 calendar days and certify a selection within 20 calendar days. If they fail, the state party chair must appoint a qualified same-party person within seven days. Designation and acceptance are due within three days of the meeting or appointment, and no later than the day before the general election.

Presidential successors gain rules and penalties

When an accepted presidential or vice-presidential nominee dies or withdraws under party rules before electors meet, elector votes refer to the party’s successor. Voting for that successor under this rule does not violate the cited state voting requirement. Specified false-instrument and forgery rules for presidential-elector lists and votes also cover electors’ successors who knowingly engage in the prohibited conduct. Special national-popular-vote rules apply when the interstate compact is in effect and Colorado awards its electoral votes to that winner.

Primary candidate replacements face tight deadlines

For covered major-party nomination vacancies, committees must mail meeting notices within 10 calendar days. If a committee misses its selection deadline, the state party chair must appoint a qualified same-party candidate within seven days. In the covered pre-primary vacancy window, designation and acceptance deadlines cannot extend beyond the day before the primary. For vacancies arising from the day after ballots can first be mailed through primary day, the cap is seven days after the primary. Votes for the former candidate count for the replacement only when the replacement is certified by primary day.

Vacancy replacements face party and election limits

The governor’s temporary U.S. Senate appointee must belong to the former senator’s party and serves until an election fills the vacancy. Under the covered vacancy rules, most replacement officials serve until the next scheduled general election; nonpartisan board appointments are excluded. This includes county-board appointees to county offices other than county commissioner. County commissioner and General Assembly replacements serve until the next scheduled coordinated or general election. Voters then fill any remaining term.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Cosponsors

Andrew Boesenecker
Democratic • House
Amy Paschal
Democratic • House
Brianna Titone
Democratic • House
Eliza Hamrick
Democratic • House
Elizabeth Velasco
Democratic • House
Jennifer Bacon
Democratic • House
Jamie Jackson
Democratic • House
Junie Joseph
Democratic • House
Javier Mabrey
Democratic • House
Julie McCluskie
Democratic • House
Jacque Phillips
Democratic • House
Kyle Brown
Democratic • House
Karen McCormick
Democratic • House
Kenny Nguyen
Democratic • House
Lorena Garcia
Democratic • House
Lori Goldstein
Democratic • House
Monica Duran
Democratic • House
Meg Froelich
Democratic • House
Mandy Lindsay
Democratic • House
Meghan Lukens
Democratic • House
Matthew Martinez
Democratic • House
Manny Rutinel
Democratic • House
Naquetta Ricks
Democratic • House
Rebekah Stewart
Democratic • House
Sean Camacho
Democratic • House
Steven Woodrow
Democratic • House
Tammy Story
Democratic • House
Yara Zokaie
Democratic • House
Sen. A. Benavidez
Affiliation unavailable
Cathy Kipp
Democratic • Senate
Iman Jodeh
Democratic • Senate
James Coleman
Democratic • Senate
Jessie Danielson
Democratic • Senate
Julie Gonzales
Democratic • Senate
Janice Marchman
Democratic • Senate
Marc Snyder
Democratic • Senate
Tony Exum
Democratic • Senate
Tom Sullivan
Democratic • Senate

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 245 • No: 205

House vote • 5/7/2026

Senate amendments: Repass

Yes: 42 • No: 22

House vote • 5/7/2026

Senate amendments: Concur

Yes: 42 • No: 22

Senate vote • 5/4/2026

Third reading: Bill

Yes: 23 • No: 12

Senate vote • 5/4/2026

Third reading: Amend (l.050)

Yes: 33 • No: 2

Senate vote • 5/1/2026

Committee of the whole: Cow * (s.001)

Yes: 11 • No: 23

Senate vote • 4/24/2026

Refer House Bill 26-1113, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole.

Yes: 4 • No: 3

Senate vote • 4/9/2026

Adopt amendment L.023 (Attachment B).

Yes: 3 • No: 2

Senate vote • 4/9/2026

Refer House Bill 26-1113, as amended, to the Committee on Appropriations.