On Nov. 8, Colorado voters narrowly rejected an amendment to eliminate language from a state law that explicitly allows “involuntary servitude” as a punishment for crime. Activists who pushed for the change to the state charter said they won’t seek a recount but will work to put the amendment to voters again in a future election cycle.
“We have evaluated the results and accepted that is the outcome,” Celeste Martinez of Together Colorado said, according to the Denver Post.
State Rep. Jovan Melton, a Democrat from Aurora is exploring a wording change to make the ballot language less confusing, the Denver Post added, noting he hopes to get the amendment on the ballot two years from now.
According to Ballotpedia, Question T asked Colorado voters the following: “Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the removal of the exception to the prohibition of slavery and involuntary servitude when used as punishment for persons duly convicted of a crime?”
A yes vote would have stricken the second half of section 26 of the state Bill of Rights, which currently reads, “There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
The provision is original to Colorado’s state constitution, adopted in 1876, according to the Denver Post. The language is similar to that of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified 11 years earlier, which states that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
According to Ballotpedia, critics feared the wording change could throw into question the legality of work requirements for prison inmates and mandated community service punishments for other offenders. Proponents denied that would be a problem, citing the legality of such punishments in other states with constitutional bars on slavery and involuntary servitude that lack exception language, Denverite reported Monday.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.