WASHINGTON - August 6 - Coloradans are fed up with corruption and have chosen to fight back. Today, more than 100,000 signatures are being turned in to state officials from citizens who support a statewide ballot initiative. Initiative 82 calls for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and get corporate and wealthy donor money out of our elections.

Our elected officials are supposed to serve the voters, not the highest bidder. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, Super PACs and other independent groups have spent huge amounts, in some cases outspending individual campaigns by a ratio of 2-to-1. Citizens United-enabled outside group spending, much of it secret, is devoted overwhelmingly to negative attack ads. The funds come from a very small cluster of people; a recent report found that just 47 people, each giving at least $1 million to Super PACs, accounted for more than 57 percent of the money raised by Super PACs during this current election cycle.

Along with millions around the country, the people of Colorado are courageously reclaiming their elections and making sure that democracy is for people, not for corporations. State legislatures have called for an amendment in California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont, Rhode Island and Maryland; more than 280 communities across the country have done the same. Public Citizen is proud to continue partnering with groups like Common Cause and U.S. PIRG, as well as the people of Colorado as they push forward toward restoring our democracy.

To learn more about Public Citizen’s Democracy Is For People campaign, visit: http://democracyisforpeople.org.