On April 30, the Colorado legislature passed HB 19-1278, an omnibus election law bill. Among many other provisions, it makes independent candidate petition requirements (except for president) more severe. Most of the non-presidential statewide offices rise from 1,000 signatures to 7,000 signatures. State Board of Education and Regent statewide petitions rise from 1,000 to 3,500 signatures. U.S. House rises from 800 to 1,500. State Senate from 600 to 1,000. State House 400 to 1,000.

The bill does not affect the requirements for creating a new ballot-qualified party, except to move the deadline for a group to show that it has the needed 1,000 registered members from July 1 to April 1.

Many groups tried to stop the ballot access requirements from rising, but the only relief was that an earlier version of the bill set most of the statewide petitions at 10,500, but that was lowered to 7,000. However the bill still has a very difficult U.S. House district distribution requirement. Statewide petitions need 1,000 from each of the U.S. House districts. Furthermore, if Colorado gains a U.S. House seat after the 2020 census, the statewide requirement automatically rises to 8,000.

Although the bill technically makes the independent presidential petition requirement more difficult, that is a meaningless change, because it will still be possible for independent presidential candidates to get on the ballot without any petition, by paying $1,000.