Citizens in Charge

(LAKE RIDGE, VA) – Today, Citizens in Charge, a national voter rights lobby, joined a group of Colorado-based policy organizations and individuals active in recent state ballot initiatives in sending a letter to new Secretary of State Scott Gessler, officially petitioning his office to engage in rule-making to clarify the state’s initiative and referendum process, which has recently been declared “dead” due to an ongoing lawsuit that threatens to bankrupt initiative sponsors.

“We call on Secretary Gessler to act promptly to clarify the rules in a way that protects the First Amendment rights of all Coloradoans to petition their government,” said Citizens in Charge President Paul Jacob. “The current legal limbo is killing the state’s initiative process.”

Colorado’s initiative petition rules have devolved into controversy after HB 1326, a major re-write of the state’s procedures, passed in 2009. Last year, the state was prevented by a federal court order from enforcing the law’s ban on non-resident circulators and its restriction on payments to circulators based on the number of signatures gathered.

“The previous Secretary of State left the sponsors and circulators of initiative petitions in the dark, not adjusting the rules even after a federal court enjoined major provisions of the 2009 legislation,” Jacob said. “Now a lawsuit threatens two innocent petition sponsors with bankruptcy, when they’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. It is also sending a chilling warning to others to stay silent and not propose reforms by initiative petition.”

By law, each initiative petition form must contain an affidavit signed by the circulator and notarized. Even though non-residents are permitted to circulate petitions, the affidavit set by the Secretary of State still mandates that circulators write down a Colorado residence for their address. This has led to confusion for circulators, who are not permanent residents of Colorado, and it has spawned a lawsuit against Jon Caldara and Linda Gorman, two proponents of last November’s Amendment 63.

“Colorado legislators have created a nightmare,” Jacob charged. “They changed the rules to redefine ‘fraud,’ removed fundamental legal protections from citizens and then encouraged vindictive lawsuits that threaten initiative sponsors, personally, with crushing legal bills. The current rules are somewhere between ridiculous and outright entrapment.”
The signers of the letter petitioning the Secretary of State to engage in new rule-making are: Paul Jacob, president of Citizens in Charge, a national pro-initiative group; Thad Tecza, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder; Danny Katz, state director of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group; Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute; Marty Neilson, president of Colorado Union of Taxpayers; Albie Hurst with Ballot Initiative Access; Dan Kennedy of Kennedy Enterprises; and Scott Lamm of Lamm Consulting.

ABOUT CITIZENS IN CHARGE:
Citizens in Charge is the only national transpartisan voter rights group dedicated to protecting and expanding the ballot initiative and referendum process for every citizen regardless of party or political persuasion. We believe good government starts with the voter. For more information visit us www.CitizensInCharge.org.