One key detail could determine whether an upcoming bill in Colorado’s statehouse stands to affect hundreds of thousands of people, or perhaps just a few hundred.

State Rep. Jonathan Singer, a Democrat from Longmont, is vowing that “there will be a bill” introduced in 2020 to allow for statewide expungement of criminal records for all people convicted of low-level marijuana offenses in Colorado prior to legalization.

The big question now: Should the bill require that the state automatically clear these convictions — including for now-legal activities like minor possession, use and possession of paraphernalia — or should it require that people apply for expungement?

If it’s the latter, recent history indicates the bill would have relatively little effect; expungement through application is already available in Denver and Boulder County, but, as of mid-October, just 71 people, out of more than 17,000 eligible, were successful in vacating their marijuana convictions.

Across the state, there were about 200,000 arrests between 1986 and 2010 for marijuana possession, a 2012 study from Queens College found. That study also found black and Latino people were disproportionately targeted in enforcement, accounting for 36 percent of all possession arrests despite making up just 23 percent of the state’s overall population, and despite reporting using marijuana less on average than white Coloradans.

Colorado is approaching its seventh year with legal recreational marijuana, but many of those convicted pre-Amendment 64 may still be dogged by their criminal records, which can limit options for housing, school and employment.

This lingering impact, state Rep. Edie Hooton said, is one reason that statewide expungement is “a huge priority” heading into the 2020 legislative session.

And in that session, Singer added, “The goal and the hope is to make it automatic. The question is how. It’s a question of time and cost.”

Singer said he doesn’t know how much it would cost or how long an automatic program would take.

But he’s optimistic he can write it into a successful bill.

“I know the world of big asks, and this is not a big ask,” he said. “Knock on wood, but this could be pretty simple.”

The top Republican in the House, Minority Leader Patrick Neville of Castle Rock, said he sees few areas in which his caucus can work with Democrats — but it seems that the kind of bill Singer is floating could be one of them.

“I’d like to see more of a push for expungement of records for non-violent offenders, non-violent, non-sexual offenders, things of that nature,” he said. “Get that off their record and live a normal life.”

Hooton, a Boulder Democrat, is feeling confident: “It will not be a big lift. I do not see opposition to it.”

That may be wishful thinking.

Tom Raynes, who represents and lobbies on behalf of all elected district attorneys in Colorado, said he believes “most prosecutors” would resist an automatic program.

“I think law enforcement and the DA side of the table would be more interested in someone having to establish that they qualify,” Raynes said.

That method’s not fair, argues at least one DA.

“I recognize there’s a financial burden and a workload burden” with an automatic program, said Boulder’s Michael Dougherty, “but I also think that to leave it to the individual person to apply for relief requires them to know about it, to be in Colorado, to go through the court process, to pay the fee.

“I think if we put the burden on the people to apply and go through the process, we’ll definitely see lower numbers.”

But Dougherty also realizes that it would take “a tremendous amount of work to go back through records for each and every jurisdiction” and proactively clear the relevant ones.

An expungement bill next year would follow on a 2017 bipartisan bill that allowed people who were convicted of low-level marijuana offense to petition in Colorado to have their conviction records sealed.