In 1966, Colorado adopted by a vote of the people a constitutional amendment providing for a merit selection system for the nomination and appointment of justices and judges. Judicial Nominating Commissions with citizen members submit three names for each judicial vacancy to the Governor for appointments. At the end of a term in office, each justice or judge must declare an intention to run for another term, and then ask to be retained by appearing on the ballot in a judicial retention election. A majority “Yes” vote for a justice or judge allows retention of the position. A majority “No” vote ends the term for that particular justice or judge and creates a vacancy on the court. This system has become a model for the rest of the country.

This proposal will not change the provisions of the Colorado Constitution. The sole change involves the format of the retention election ballot. Rather than a repetition of the same retention question for each individual justice or judge, the ballot will contain one retention question for each court, and then list each justice or judge standing for retention on that court with “Yes/No” beside each name for the elector’s vote.