Organizers behind a proposed Colorado constitutional amendment that would make explicit that only citizens can vote in elections this week turned in what they predicted could be a record number of petition signatures.

Amid all the celebration – the measure, dubbed Amendment 76, is almost certain to make the 2020 ballot – supporters of the Colorado Citizen Voters campaign dismissed critics who say the ballot initiative won’t accomplish what it’s supposed to because it’s trying to amend the wrong part of the constitution.

While state and federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting, supporters of the proposed amendment want to change language in the state constitution that says “every citizen” can vote if they meet certain qualifications to say that “only a citizen” who meets the qualifications can vote.

“This initiative seeks to clarify and codify the Colorado constitution by taking ambiguous, inclusive language and making it clear, exclusive language,” said George Athanasopoulos, a former Republican congressional candidate and a chief organizer behind the initiative.

He said an amendment is necessary to prevent the state from changing the law – and to keep local governments from allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, like residents can do in some jurisdictions in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maryland.

Advocates say that allowing certain noncitizens to vote in municipal and school board elections – including green card holders and other legal permanent residents – encourages civic participation by taxpayers and parents.

One of the dozen Republican legislators who carried box after box filled with signed petitions into an office at the Colorado secretary of state’s headquarters in Denver on Nov. 12 cheered the measure.

“This is a huge, monumental win for grassroots Colorado,” said House Republican Leader Patrick Neville. He added: “This simply clears up some ambiguous language and makes sure we have taken first steps to ensure we have election integrity in the state of Colorado.”

Backers weren’t sure how many signatures were contained in the boxes but estimate it was well upwards of 200,000, possibly beating the 228,832 signatures turned in this summer by the organizers behind an initiative to repeal a state law awarding Colorado’s electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.

It takes 124,632 verified signatures for an initiative to make Colorado’s 2020 ballot, but constitutional changes face an extra requirement, needing signatures from at least 2% of the total registered voters in each of the state’s 35 state senate districts. In addition, initiatives that amend the constitution must receive 55% of the vote in order to be adopted, rather than the simple majority required to pass statutory ballot measures.

Athanasopoulos said he was confident Amendment 76 will clear the hurdles with plenty of signatures to spare. Election officials have 30 days to determine whether it makes next year’s ballot.

The effort to get the measure on the ballot has been almost entirely funded by Citizen Votes Inc., a national nonprofit that’s trying to pass similar measures in more than a dozen states. The group is headed by John and Gina Loudon, a Florida couple who live in President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and have ties to other organizations that support the president’s re-election campaign.

Voters in North Dakota passed a nearly identical measure last year with 65.9% of the vote, and the group is behind proposals that have made it to the 2020 ballot in Florida and Alabama.

Through the end of October, the national group spent more than $1.4 million in Colorado to gather signatures for Amendment 76, according to campaign finance reports.

When the Colorado petition drive launched, Athanasopoulos pre-emptively dismissed questions about its national backers.

“This is a national effort but it’s a Colorado campaign,” he told Colorado Politics. “It was a meeting of the minds. I’ve been talking about this for years. The national organization has mobilized voters across the country. We decided now was a politically logical time to introduce this initiative.”

A Colorado election law attorney who regularly represents Democratic candidates and interests, however, said the campaign’s national origins could spell trouble.

“It seems that what they did was talk to some lawyer in another state about a model they’ve used in another state. As a result, they got the wrong answer from the wrong person and ended up proposing to amend the wrong part of the constitution,” Mark Grueskin said.

It turns out a different section of the state constitution governs the elections Amendment 76 backers say they’re most concerned could allow noncitizens to vote.

“The home rule amendment gives sole authority to home rule municipalities, which have to be the ones they’re concerned about, to register and determine the qualifications for their electors,” Grueskin said.

In Colorado, 61 cities and 35 towns – including all but four of the 50 largest – operate under home rule charters and get to set their own rules.

“It’s totally backwards,” Grueskin said, failing to contain his laughter.

“The case law, cases that have been decided on this by the court of appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court, is just crystal clear. There is no way that amending the general election protections are going to touch the ability of home rule municipalities to do whatever they’re going to do.”

“If they want to spend millions of dollars to get something on the ballot that isn’t going to do anything of substance, then go for it,” he added. “Even if voters were to endorse it, it’s going to be a lot less than they thought they were going to do. They didn’t pay attention to the rules, and they’ve come up short.”

Grueskin speculated that the ballot measure’s supporters have aims other than solving what he called “a political problem that doesn’t exist.”

“They’re creating fear,” he said. “I assume it’s all about trying to use it to try to get people to the polls, which in 2020 I can’t believe is going to be a problem. If that’s what they think they need to do to crystalize political thought in 2020, I’ve got news for them. People are going to be thinking about the issues that really affect them every day, not some speculative concern that has never reared its head in Colorado.”

Neville shrugged off Grueskin’s concerns, calling the proposed amendment “a first step toward common-sense election integrity.”

“This makes it crystal clear, it puts it in the constitution,” he said.

Athanasopoulos had a harsher response.

“That’s straight nonsense,” he said. “You have to start somewhere in the Colorado constitution, and this is the logical place to begin a larger effort. We’re not going to bring back integrity to our elections in one fell swoop. This is the first step.”

He added: “We have to address home rule, we have to address same-day voter registration. There are a lot of holes in our election integrity that have to be fixed, but this is the most critically important and logical starting point.”

Athanasopoulos rejected suggestions the measure’s primary effect will be to juice 2020 turnout by conservatives

“They’re grasping at straws. This is something that incredibly popular and is, frankly, the singular issue on the Colorado ballot in 2020,” he said. “If a candidate or an elected official is wrong on this issue, they can’t be trusted on any issue.”