A group behind a proposed $315 million increase in tobacco taxes launched its campaign on Wednesday to gather 98,492 valid signatures in the next month and get the tax increase before voters on the November ballot.

The Campaign for a Healthy Colorado isn’t alone in this eleventh-hour blitz to gather signatures.

Records indicate as many as 10 groups are actively collecting signatures to put their issue on the ballot in November.

One massive question – a $25 billion universal healthcare system – is already on the ballot as Amendment 69.

But the field has narrowed substantially from the more than 100 ballot titles originally filed with the Secretary of State.

Some, like those proposing to allow grocery store chains to sell beer and wine at more than one location, were withdrawn voluntarily.

Others, like the efforts to reform how Colorado handles redistricting for state and federal offices, were struck down by the Colorado Supreme Court.

The deadline to submit signatures is Aug. 8, and the Secretary of State’s Office will have one month to determine if enough of the signatures are valid to put the questions on the ballot for November. It takes 5 percent of the total votes cast for all candidates for Secretary of State in the last general election to put a question on the ballot. In 2016, that’s just under 100,000 signatures from verifiable registered voters.

“There will be a number of considerations for voters in November, but I think this will be one that will stick out for them,” said Jodi Radke, regional advocacy director for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “Twelve years ago when we passed Amendment 35, voters supported that knowing the monies would be directed exactly as intended and we do have a successful history. Proposing this to the voters, I think there is widespread support.”

Campaign for a Healthy Colorado has already collected about 35,000 signatures and has hired Rocky Mountain Voter Outreach to collect signatures for Proposed Initiative 143. If enough signatures are turned in and valid, the initiative will be assigned an Amendment number. Proposed changes to state statute will be assigned referendum letters.

The coalition of healthcare, veterans and youth workers, held a press conference laying out the details behind proposed imitative 143, which would increase the tax on cigarettes by $1.75, bringing the total cigarette tax to $2.59 in Colorado.

The money would go to fund medical research, tobacco education programs, veterans mental health and medical programs, youth mental health services, and healthcare access in rural areas.

The tobacco industry is expected to oppose the initiative, but according to records filed with the Secretary of State’s Office no group has officially registered in opposition to the initiative.

That’s not the case for two initiatives that aim to increase local control over oil and gas operations. The groups Greenpeace USA and Food and Water Action Fund are gathering signatures for proposed initiatives 75 and 78.

“We’re preparing as if they are going to make the ballot and we have been thinking that way since the beginning,” said Karen Crummy, spokeswoman for the organized group Protecting Colorado’s Environment, Economy and Energy Independence. “It’s not like on Aug. 9 we start a campaign. We started this campaign months ago.”

Four of the 10 initiatives that are still pending, got their start through the Building a Better Colorado process but have now broken off into independent campaigns. That effort is backed by Dan Ritchie, the wealth philanthropist and former president of the University of Denver.

Curtis Hubbard worked on that campaign and is now the spokesman for proposed initiatives 98 and 140 which would open up primary elections to unaffiliated voters and restore the presidential preference primary, respectively.

“We’re extremely confident based on what we are hearing from voters as we are collecting signatures that there is understanding for the issues and support for the issues,” said Hubbard with the issue committee Let Colorado Vote. “We do mail ballots to voters early enough that there is time for them to really review the issues, inform themselves and make educated decisions.”

Voters going into booths with long ballots and no access to additional information can suffer from ballot fatigue and either not vote on issues or vote against all the issues, according to researchers and political science experts.

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“Anyone working on a yes initiative should be somewhat nervous about a crowded ballot because I think when voters are faced with a number of decision they can be overwhelmed and then have a tendency to vote no on tings,” said Joe Megyesy, who helped pass Amendment 64 in 2012 to legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado and is helping on other campaigns this year.

Megyesy and other noted the 2008 ballot was huge, roughly four pages long.

Of the 14 proposed amendments and referendum, four passed that year.

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter: @CapitolSchrader

Photo by: Hot Asana Yoga Studio

Photo by: Hot Asana Yoga Studio