Amendment 87 made the front page. Then the comments got weird.

Our Policy Manager, Caroline Nutter, was at DIA on her way to Alaska for a wedding when she spotted Amendment 87 on the cover of The Denver Post. Naturally, she snapped a picture and we posted it to Instagram and Facebook, because when your ballot measure makes the front page, you document the moment. Obviously.

We don’t know whether Caroline could see Russia from her gate, but she could definitely see Colorado’s graduated income tax on the front page. Amendment 87 got there because an underfunded, understaffed and underestimated volunteer army met a strict August deadline and did the work to put it before voters. Now the measure is facing a well-funded, dark-money opposition with a clear interest in preserving a broken tax code.

Then the comments started pouring in.

At first, we thought, “Great! People are paying attention.” Our website traffic had increased by 212.5% between reporting periods. I briefly considered putting that in my annual performance evaluation.

Then we looked more closely.

Much of the increase came through direct traffic from outside the United States, including a surprising amount from Singapore. After a quick check of the Colorado map, we confirmed that Singapore is not a small Colorado mining town. Apparently, Singapore and China have entered the Colorado tax debate. Or, at minimum, their bots have.

Russia, perhaps distracted by Caroline’s arrival in Alaska, has yet to weigh in.

Within minutes, accounts with names like RockyMountainPatriot738 began passionately defending Colorado’s flat tax, despite having been created Tuesday and previously posting exclusively about cryptocurrency, Belgian tractors and a dentist in Moldova.

That’s when we realized we might not be witnessing a groundswell of grassroots opposition. We might be under a bot attack.

Coloradans should expect to be inundated with scary claims, misleading statistics, bad-faith arguments and, apparently, extremely civic-minded computers in Singapore. The well-funded opposition has a lot to lose if Colorado moves away from a broken tax code where a teacher pays the same as Target.

Amendment 87 would lower or maintain taxes for 97% of Coloradans with taxable income of $500,000 or less, while asking the wealthiest Coloradans to contribute more toward schools, health care and child care.

That’s where you come in.

An underfunded, understaffed and underestimated volunteer army got Amendment 87 onto the ballot. Now we need that same army answering misinformation, sharing accurate information and talking with actual Colorado voters. The opposition will outspend us, and bots don’t sleep.

Correct the misinformation. Talk with your neighbors. Help us reach voters, and stay tuned to CFI for the facts and the occasional joke about extremely civic-minded computers in Singapore.

Caroline may be able to see Russia from Alaska, but between now and Election Day, we need real Coloradans making sure Russia or Singapore can’t see us from the comments section.

Do something bots can’t do: get involved. Get involved with Protect Colorado’s Future.