(1) The petition shall be prepared and circulated pursuant to this part 1.
(1.5) No signature shall be counted that was placed on a petition prior to approval as to form of the petition by the designated election official pursuant to subsection (4) of this section or more than sixty days after the designated election official's approval as to form of the petition.
(2) (a) The petition for the recall of an elected official may consist of one or more sheets, to be fastened together in the form of one petition section, but each side of the sheet that contains signatures of eligible electors shall contain the same heading and each petition section shall contain one sworn affidavit of the circulator. No petition shall contain the name of more than one person proposed to be recalled from office.
(b) The petition for recall may be circulated and signed in sections, and each section shall contain a full and accurate copy of the warning as required by paragraph (b) of subsection (3) of this section, the title in paragraph (c) of subsection (3) of this section, the general statement as described in section 1-12-103, and appropriate columns or spaces for the information required in paragraph (b) of subsection (5) of this section. Each petition section shall designate, by name and address, a committee of up to three persons that shall represent the signers in all matters affecting the petition.
(3) (a) No petition shall be certified as sufficient that does not contain the requisite number of names of eligible electors whose names do not appear on any other petition previously filed for the recall of the same person under the provisions of this article.
At the top of each side of each sheet that contains signatures of eligible electors shallbe printed, in bold-faced type, the following:
WARNING:
IT IS AGAINST THE LAW:
For anyone to sign this petition with any name other than one's own or to knowingly sign one's name more than once for the same measure or to knowingly sign the petition when not a registered elector.
Do not sign this petition unless you are an eligible elector. To be an eligible elector you must be registered to vote and eligible to vote in (name of political subdivision) elections.
Do not sign this petition unless you have read or have had read to you the proposed recall measure in its entirety and understand its meaning.
Directly following the warning in paragraph (b) of this subsection (3) shall be printedin bold-faced type the following:
Petition to recall (name of person sought to be recalled) from the office of (title of office).
(4) (a) No petition shall be circulated until it has been approved as to form as meeting the requirements of this subsection (4). The official with whom the petitions are to be filed pursuant to section 1-12-107 shall approve or disapprove a petition as to form by the close of the seventh business day following submission of the proposed petition. On the day that the action is taken, the official shall mail written notice of the action taken to the committee and to the person whom the petition seeks to recall.
If the form of the petition is not approved as to form, the designated election officialshall provide specific reasons for the disapproval.
Nothing in this section limits the ability of the committee to correct a petition as toform in accordance with the specific reasons set forth pursuant to paragraph (b) of this subsection (4) and to submit the corrected petition for review and approval or disapproval in the same manner as provided in this part 1 for an original submission.
(5) (a) Every petition shall be signed only by eligible electors.
Unless physically unable, all electors shall sign their own signature and shall printtheir names, respective residence addresses, including the street number and name, the city or town, the county, and the date of signature. Each signature on a petition shall be made, to the extent possible, in black ink.
Any person, except a circulator, may assist an elector who is physically unable tosign the petition in completing the information on the petition as required by law. On the petition immediately following the name of the elector receiving assistance, the person providing assistance shall both sign and state that the assistance was given to the elector.
(6) (a) No person shall circulate a recall petition unless the person is a citizen of the United States and at least eighteen years of age.
To each petition section must be attached a signed, notarized, and dated affidavitexecuted by the person who circulated the petition section, which includes the information and statements required for initiative or referendum petitions under section 1-40-111.
The designated election official shall not accept for filing any section of a petitionthat does not have attached to it the notarized affidavit required by this section. Any signature added to a section of a petition after the notarized affidavit has been executed is invalid.
(Deleted by amendment, L. 97, p. 1062, § 5, effective May 27, 1997.)
(7.5) The petition may be filed at any time during the sixty-day period after the designated election official's approval as to form of the petition as specified in this section. The committee shall file all sections of a petition simultaneously, and any section of a petition submitted after the petition is filed is invalid and has no force or effect.
(a) Promptly after the petition has been filed, the designated election official for the political subdivision shall review all petition information and verify the information against the registration records, and, where applicable, the county assessor's records. For a state recall petition, the secretary of state shall verify signatures in accordance with section 1-4-908 (1.5). The secretary of state shall establish guidelines for verifying petition entries. Within twenty-four hours after the petition is delivered, the designated election official shall notify the incumbent of the delivery. Following verification of the petition by the designated election official, the designated election official shall make a copy of the petition available to the incumbent sought to be recalled.
Any disassembly of a section of the petition prior to filing that has the effect ofseparating the affidavit from the signatures renders that section of the petition invalid and of no force and effect.
(I) After review, and no later than fifteen business days after the initial filing of thepetition, the designated election official shall notify the committee and the incumbent of the number of valid signatures and whether the petition appears to be sufficient or insufficient.
Upon determining that the petition is sufficient and after the time for protest haspassed and any protests duly raised have been fully adjudicated, the designated election official shall, within twenty-four hours, submit the certificate of sufficiency to the governor or designated election official, as appropriate, who shall set a date for holding the election in accordance with section 1-12-111. If the election is a coordinated election, the secretary of state shall notify the designated election official of the coordinated election. The designated election official of the coordinated election shall post the certificate to his or her official website, or, if there is no official website, post the certificate in accordance with normal practices reasonably calculated to provide public notice, by 12 noon on the day after the day on which he or she issues the sufficiency determination.
(II.5) During the review of any recall petition, the designated election official shall notify the committee of any errors and insufficiencies regarding circulator affidavits. Upon the receipt of such a notification, the committee has five calendar days from the date of receipt of the notice to cure the errors and insufficiencies described in the notice. To cure a circulator affidavit, the committee must provide the designated election official with a new circulator affidavit that corrects the errors of the previously submitted affidavit.
If the petition is verified as insufficient, the designated election official shall provide the specific reasons for the determination to the committee. The determination may be appealed by the committee in the manner provided in section 1-1-113 to the district court in the county in which the petition was filed. No person other than those on the committee have standing to appeal a determination that the petition is insufficient.
(9) (a) (I) A recall petition that has been verified by the designated election official shall be held to be sufficient unless a protest in writing under oath is filed in the office of the designated election official by an eligible elector within fifteen days after the designated election official has determined the sufficiency of the petition under paragraph (c) of subsection (8) of this section.
The protest shall set forth specific grounds for the protest. Grounds include failure ofany portion of a petition or circulator affidavit to meet the requirements of this article or any conduct on the part of petition circulators that substantially misleads persons signing the petition. The designated election official shall forthwith mail a copy of the protest to the committee, together with a notice fixing a time for hearing the protest not less than five nor more than ten days after the notice is mailed.
Every hearing shall be before the designated election official with whom the protestis filed or a designee of the designated election official appointed as the hearing officer or before a district judge sitting in that county if the designated election official is the subject of the recall. The testimony in every hearing shall be under oath. The hearing shall be summary and not subject to delay and shall be concluded within thirty days after the protest is filed with the designated election official, and the result shall be forthwith certified to the committee.
The party filing a protest has the burden of sustaining the protest by a preponderanceof the evidence. The decision upon matters of substance is open to review, if prompt application is made, as provided in section 1-1-113. The remedy in all cases shall be summary, and the decision of any court having jurisdiction shall be final and not subject to review by any other court; except that the supreme court, in the exercise of its discretion, may review any judicial proceeding in a summary way.
Repealed.
(I) Not later than three days after the petition has been filed in accordance with subsection (7.5) of this section, any signer may request that his or her name be stricken from the petition by filing with the designated election official a written request that his or her signature be stricken and delivering a copy of the request to at least one member of the committee. If the request is delivered to the member of the committee or the designated election official through the United States mail, it shall be deemed delivered to the committee or the designated election official on the date shown by the cancellation mark on the envelope containing the request received by the member of the committee or the designated election official. If the request is delivered to the member of the committee or the designated election official in any other manner, it shall be deemed delivered to the committee or the designated election official on the date of delivery and stamped receipt by the designated election official.
(II) If the designated election official receives a written request timely filed in accordance with subsection (9)(d)(I) of this section, the election official shall strike the signature of the signer who filed the request. If the election official receives such a written request before the petition is filed, the election official shall strike the signature of the signer who filed the request promptly upon the filing of the petition.
(10) Any person who willfully destroys, defaces, mutilates, or suppresses a petition, or who willfully neglects to file or delays delivery of a petition, or who conceals or removes a petition from the possession of the person authorized by law to have custody of it, or who aids, counsels, procures, or assists any person in doing any of the above acts is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in section 1-13-111.
Source: L. 92: Entire article R&RE, p. 795, § 15, effective January 1, 1993. L. 93: Entire section amended, p. 1435, § 119, effective July 1. L. 95: Entire section amended, p. 845, §
72, effective July 1. L. 97: (4), (7), (8)(c), (9)(a), and (9)(c) amended and (7.5) added, p. 1062, § 5, effective May 27. L. 99: (9)(c) amended and (9)(d) added, p. 95, § 1, effective September 1. L. 2001: (2)(a) amended, p. 1004, § 14, effective August 8. L. 2002: (7.5) amended, p. 1640, § 32, effective June 7. L. 2007: (6)(a) and (6)(b) amended, p. 1981, § 32, effective August 3. L. 2012: (1), (2), (3)(a), (3)(b), (4), (5)(c), (6)(b), (6)(c), (7.5), (8), (9)(a), (9)(c), and (9)(d)(I) amended and (1.5) added, (HB 12-1293), ch. 236, p. 1040, § 6, effective May 29. L. 2014: (6)(b) and (8)(c)(II) amended, (8)(c)(II.5) added, and (9)(c) repealed, (SB 14-158), ch. 170, p. 618, § 4, effective May 9. L. 2018: (9)(d) amended, (SB 18-233), ch. 262, p. 1617, § 40, effective May 29. L. 2019: (6)(a), (8)(a), and (8)(c)(II.5) amended, (HB 19-1278), ch. 326, p. 3034, § 46, effective August 2.
Cross references: (1) For the legislative declaration in SB 14-158, see section 1 of chapter 170, Session Laws of Colorado 2014.
(2) For the short title ("Colorado Votes Act") in HB 19-1278, see section 1 of chapter 326, Session Laws of Colorado 2019.