Two years after a similar effort failed, Coloradans voted Tuesday, 65 percent to 35 percent, to become the first state in the U.S. to ban slavery and its more politely described friend, “involuntary servitude.”
Amendment A answered the question: "Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution that prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime and thereby prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude in all circumstances?"
The amendment was put on the ballot with overwhelming bipartisan support from Colorado's lawmakers. It will change Article II, Section 26 of the state's constitution, which has stated for more than 100 years: "Slavery prohibited. There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
The new version will shorten that second sentence to say, "There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude."