Amendment 84 would add ID requirement to Colorado’s mail voting system, tell me about this news today

Amendment 84 (filed as Initiative 362) is a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment on Colorado’s November 3, 2026 general election ballot.

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Here is a breakdown of what the measure involves, how it works, and the arguments surrounding it:

The Proposed Change

Colorado currently runs an all-mail voting system where election officials verify mail ballots primarily through signature verification against voter registration records.

If approved, Amendment 84 would amend the state constitution to require voters submitting a ballot by mail to provide both their signature and a verifying identification number. Acceptable identifiers would include:

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• The last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number.

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• A Colorado driver’s license number or state identification card number (meeting REAL ID standards).

If the provided numbers do not match or are missing, voters would have to go through a “cure” process to verify their identity before their ballot can be tabulated.

Passage Threshold

Because Amendment 84 seeks to alter the Colorado Constitution, it requires a 55% supermajority vote to pass, rather than a simple majority.

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The Core Debate

• Proponents (including conservative organizers and county election officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Taheri and El Paso County Treasurer Chuck Broerman) argue that signature verification alone is subjective or prone to human error. They contend that adding an objective numerical identifier adds an extra layer of election security and bolsters public trust in mail-in results.

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• Opponents (including voting-rights advocacy organizations and civil liberties groups) argue that Colorado’s existing signature-verification and tracking systems have proven secure and reliable for over a decade. They raise concerns about voter privacyspecifically writing sensitive identifying numbers on outer return envelopesand worry that innocent clerical typos or missing numbers will disproportionately lead to rejected or delayed ballots.

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