The Colorado Statesman
Recall elections to oust Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs and state Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo were once again thrown into flux this week after a Denver District Court judge’s ruling essentially made mail-ballot voting impossible. A few days later, the Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear the case on appeal and let the District Court ruling stand.
Judge Robert McGahey ruled from the bench Monday evening after hearing a day’s worth of arguments on a lawsuit brought by the Colorado Libertarian Party.
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A second state lawmaker is staring down the barrel of a recall election after proponents turned in about 2,300 more signatures than needed to oust Democratic Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo over her support for gun control.
Whether the trigger is pulled on the recall election depends on if the secretary of state’s office validates the 13,570 signatures submitted by proponents on Monday. They need 11,285 valid signatures, which represents 25 percent of the votes cast for Giron’s seat in 2010. The secretary’s office has 15 days to validate. There is then a 15-day appeal period and stakeholders can also petition the courts.
Fresh off a thumping at the polls in Mississippi, supporters of a constitutional amendment that would legally define a fertilized egg as a person are back for a third try with Colorado voters. On Monday, Arvada-based Personhood USA unveiled a measure that’s been substantially rewritten from ballot initiatives Colorado voters shot down by wide margins in the last two general elections.
An unlikely alliance of some of the state’s leading liberal and conservative voices are sounding the alarm that Colorado’s ballot initiative process is facing an unprecedented assault from established interests and lawmakers.
Nearly 19 years after voters adopted the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, and one year after a TABOR time-out expired, a group of 34 bipartisan plaintiffs have filed suit in U.S. District Court in Denver to throw out the tax limitation amendment as unconstitutional. Republicans who support TABOR reacted strongly, saying that if the lawsuit were successful, it would not only put an end to TABOR but to any citizen-initiated ballot initiative.
Backers of the “Personhood” amendment who attempted to force a change to the voter guide “Blue Book” were turned back in their efforts in Denver District Court last week. But despite the costs that it might incur, an appeal is planned, say Amendment 62 supporters. Judge Robert S. Hyatt accepted a motion from the defendants, the Colorado General Assembly’s Legislative Council, to dismiss a lawsuit filed Sept. 20 by Amendment 62 proponents Personhood Colorado.
Colorado has plenty of money, and, unless the state’s voters further restrain it, state government will continue to divert funds into programs it shouldn’t be funding, a backer of the so-called Big 3 ballot issues told Club 20 last weekend. “I’m tired of hearing that the state is broke,” said Debbie Schum, a rancher from Delta County’s North Fork Valley.
On August 1, Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute turned in nearly 131,000 signatures to qualify a ballot initiative for the November election that would take Colorado out of the federal government’s mandated health insurance requirement. The “Right to Health Care Choice” ballot initiative would amend the state constitution to say that no statute or policy adopted or enforced by the state shall require someone to participate in any public or private health insurance plan, health care coverage or health benefit plan.