--- title: Colorado Voters Approve Amendment to Fully Abolish Slavery description: Colorado voters approved an amendment to their state's constitution to finish a fight over 150 years old: abolishing slavery canonical: https://time.com/5448693/colorado-vote-amendment-abolish-slavery/ author: Eli Meixler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-08T07:54:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:58:46.617Z article:section: Politics og:title: Colorado Votes to Fully Abolish Slavery og:description: The state's constitution previously allowed exceptions "as punishment for crime" og:url: https://time.com/5448693/colorado-vote-amendment-abolish-slavery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd73eef23c6b6601/69893e9322fb85b7d1e271a1/gettyimages-1058146282.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-VOTE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colorado Votes to Fully Abolish Slavery twitter:description: The state's constitution previously allowed exceptions "as punishment for crime" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd73eef23c6b6601/69893e9322fb85b7d1e271a1/gettyimages-1058146282.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Colorado Voters Approve Amendment to Abolish Slavery as a Punishment for Crime > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Nov 8, 2018 7:54 AM UTC  A voter cast her midterm ballot in Breckenridge, Colorado on Nov. 6, 2018. A voter cast her midterm ballot in Breckenridge, Colorado on Nov. 6, 2018. Jason Connolly—AFP/Getty Images by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Nov 8, 2018 7:54 AM UTC Colorado voters approved an amendment to their state’s constitution yesterday in a bid to finish a political fight started over 150 years ago: [abolishing slavery](https://www.npr.org/2018/11/07/665295736/colorado-votes-to-abolish-slavery-2-years-after-similar-amendment-failed). Colorado’s [Amendment A](https://www.denverpost.com/2018/10/12/colorado-amendment-a-removing-slavery-references-state-constitution/), which passed with [abou](https://www.denverpost.com/2018/11/06/colorado-amendment-a-results/)[t 65% in favor](https://www.denverpost.com/2018/11/06/colorado-amendment-a-results/) and 35% against, removed language from the state’s constitution banning slavery and involuntary servitude “except as punishment for crime,” NPR reports. Article II, Section 26 of the Colorado Constitution will now simply read: “There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude.” This year’s midterm wasn’t Colorado voters’ first opportunity to clarify the state’s stance on slavery. In 2016, a similar ballot measure failed after voters complained that the amendment’s [language was confusing](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/11/17/slavery-is-technically-still-legal-in-colorado-heres-why/?noredirect=on). Colorado’s constitution isn’t the only one to include the archaic “punishment” caveat. The U.S. Constitution’s [13th Amendment](http://time.com/4529440/?iid=sr-link1), which was ratified in 1865, also includes a provision for forced labor “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” In the wake of the Civil War, that “[loophole](https://aclu-co.org/vote-yes-on-a-to-abolish-slavery/)” was widely exploited to arrest former slaves and subject them to forced labor, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The practice, known as “convict leasing,” persisted until 1941 when it was finally abolished by executive order under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. While Colorado’s amendment may be largely symbolic, it “guarantees that language around ‘exceptions’ will never be used or abused in the future,” according to [Abolish Slavery Colorado,](https://abolishslaveryco.org/) one of the proponents of the amendment. But the change wasn’t unanimously supported. [Over 570,000 people](https://www.denverpost.com/2018/11/06/colorado-amendment-a-results/) “no” on Tuesday, according to the Denver _Post_. Opponents argued the amendment could create uncertainty around prison work programs, which see convicts in the state’s prisons contracted to [scan license plates](https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/colorado-prison-inmates-to-monitor-license-plates-on-states-toll-roads) at highway tolls, [tame wild horses](https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/colorado-prison-inmates-taming-wild-horses-1131425859739) and [fight wildfires](https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2018/08/21/colorado-prison-firefighters/). The amendment’s advocates countered that prison work programs would not be affected because inmates have to volunteer to participate, according to NPR. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5448693/colorado-vote-amendment-abolish-slavery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5448693/colorado-vote-amendment-abolish-slavery/"},"headline":"Colorado Voters Approve Amendment to Abolish Slavery as a Punishment for Crime","datePublished":"2018-11-08T07:54:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:58:46.617Z","description":"The state's constitution previously allowed exceptions \"as punishment for crime\"","url":"https://time.com/5448693/colorado-vote-amendment-abolish-slavery/","keywords":["Colorado","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd73eef23c6b6601/69893e9322fb85b7d1e271a1/gettyimages-1058146282.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eli Meixler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd73eef23c6b6601/69893e9322fb85b7d1e271a1/gettyimages-1058146282.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-VOTE","caption":"US-POLITICS-VOTE","creditText":"Jason Connolly—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/colorado/","name":"Colorado"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5448693/colorado-vote-amendment-abolish-slavery/","name":"Colorado Voters Approve Amendment to Abolish Slavery as a Punishment for Crime"}}]}] ```