It won’t get the most attention on next year’s ballot, and it probably won’t have much of an impact if it passes, but Initiative 76 could prove to be the cayenne in Colorado’s election year gumbo.

On its face, the ballot question asks if only citizens should vote in elections, which already is the case because of existing state and federal laws. Its towering argument built on straw men, however. If undocumented immigrants sought the right to vote, if there were a push to let them vote in local elections and school board races, this would prevent that.

Initiative 76 says a lot without saying much at all.

As demographics and attitudes shift, this is a dicey proposition for candidates in either party, tweaking activists on the far right, far left and a whole bunch of immigrant-rights moderates in the middle. 

RELATED: INSIGHTS | Prop CC seen as a chance to pull Hispanic voters to the right

Insights has told you before that Hispanic voters are an important and still-emerging voting bloc in Colorado and across the nation.

Moreover, Initiative 76 adds another log to the fire for next year’s elections, with President Trump’s wall voters and anti-Trump voters already are on a Colorado collision course.

This won’t be a deciding factor for or against Trump, but how Senate candidates answer the question – looking at you, Cory Gardner – makes a difference to the electoral mood.

“I know many on the left dream of turning Colorado into California, but watching non-citizens legally vote there should concern us all,” said Jon Caldara, president of the conservative Independence Institute in Denver, told me when we first talked about the pending ballot measure he supports.

“Any candidate for U.S. Senate must support clarifying that THAT can’t happen here. If not, he’s really running to represent California.”

California, here we come.

I teed it up for Gardner, a man who couldn’t say enough in support of defeating Proposition CC, the broadside on the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights a few weeks ago.

RELATED: INSIGHTS | Proposition CC exposed the edges of Democratic reign

“Senator Gardner believes that non-citizens should not be able to vote,” his spokesman, Jerrod Dobkin, told me.

This response came on the same afternoon as Gardner’s office sent the press a copy of all 2,203 words he said about veterans on the Senate floor that week. 

The front-runner in the race, former Gov. John Hickenlooper, had a dim view of conservative-led effort on immigration.

“This pointless initiative is attempting to divide our state by fear mongering about our immigrant communities and exactly the sort of thing Coloradans hate about politics,” he said.

Another top-tier Democrat, former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, took the question but his campaign never provided an answer.

State Sen. Angela Williams called it “a solution in search of a problem,” since only citizens can legally vote now.

“I’m concerned this ballot initiative is a step in the direction of voter disenfranchisement and fear-mongering,” she said. “These are two things in Colorado stand firmly against.”

Stephany Rose Spaulding called it gaslighting by Republicans to manufacture an issue.

“This talking point is coming directly from President Trump’s playbook of distractions.” she said. “It is a way to use immigrants as scapegoats while ignoring real concerns of national threat from international agents like Russia and the Ukraine interfering in our elections. Coloradans should not be burdened by such a tremendous waste of money and time.”

Lorena Garcia is the executive director for international nonprofit that supports local communities in Nepal and Nicaragua, and she’s the former executive director of the Colorado Organization For Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights.

She called Initiative 76 “desperate” and “racist.” Then she pinged a sacred Republican value: “not to mention the hypocrisy of crying local control when it suits them. If local municipalities want to open their elections to legal permanent residents, they have every right to do so.”

Immigration advocate Michelle Ferrigno Warren was equally direct. 

She said the “only possible reason” for political interests to put it on the November ballot is to “stir up anti-immigrant fervor and perpetuate the myth that non-citizens are voting.”

Incidents of undocumented people voting in Colorado equate statistically to zero, Warren pointed out, accurately.

“Besides the nefarious purpose behind the measure, it would result in another waste of our hard-earned tax dollars in the name of fear and bigotry,” she told me.

University of Colorado scientist Trish Zornio also called it a scare tactic to dissuade Hispanic voters.

“It’s egregious the GOP would spend undisclosed out-of-state millions on unfounded fear tactics rather than to fight for things that actually benefit Coloradans like better healthcare, education, and infrastructure,” she said. “Just goes to show today’s GOP is more interested in manipulating voters than fighting for actual change.”

Climate activist Diana Bray took the measure’s temperature: It’s a “racist, cruel proposal that disenfranchises and dehumanizes other human beings,” she said.

But then she leaned into it.

“Some municipalities nationwide are recognizing that there are situations in which non-citizens should be permitted to vote because they contribute to the community in many ways, and thereby deserve a voice in governance,” Bray said. “Initiative 76 would take away that possibility in the future, and I’m against it.”