{"id":64792,"date":"2020-05-18T21:18:10","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T21:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/polis-to-allow-signature-gathering-by-mail-and-email-for-ballot-initiatives\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T10:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:06:16","slug":"polis-to-allow-signature-gathering-by-mail-and-email-for-ballot-initiatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/polis-to-allow-signature-gathering-by-mail-and-email-for-ballot-initiatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Polis to allow signature gathering by mail and email for ballot initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A 2018 Colorado ballot.<\/span>Eric Lubbers\/The Colorado Sun file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed an executive order that will allow signatures for ballot initiatives to be gathered by email and mail to ensure Coloradans\u2019 democratic rights don\u2019t become another pandemic casualty.<\/p>\n

The executive order suspended several laws and will prompt the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office to develop rules to allow for signature gathering by email and mail.<\/p>\n

Until now, signatures were required to have been gathered in face-to-face interactions, typically outside grocery stores, at farmer\u2019s markets and in parks, but coronavirus has made doing so nearly impossible and also likely unsafe.<\/p>\n

The rules aren\u2019t expected to be finalized until early June. Signatures can\u2019t be gathered by email and mail until the rules are finalized.<\/p>\n

There are a number of statewide initiatives that are attempting to gather signatures to make the November ballot. Those include ones seeking to create a paid family and medical leave program, make Election Day a state holiday, draft a new criminal record expungement process for convicts and reduce the state\u2019s income tax rate.<\/p>\n

To make the statewide ballot in November, proponents of an initiative must collect about 124,000 signatures from registered voters by Aug. 3.<\/p>\n

Polis, a Democrat, has been eyeing changes to the signature-gathering process for weeks, but has refused to provide details on his plans. The executive order, which wasn\u2019t revealed until Saturday morning, was a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a challenging time for Colorado, but we must not sacrifice our democracy and the right of citizens to petition due to the pandemic. Protecting our democracy, access to the ballot and making sure citizens can qualify ballot measures and can qualify as candidates to run for office during this time is critical,\u201d Polis said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

The Secretary of State\u2019s Office said the goal is to make sure signature gathering can continue without putting people\u2019s safety at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took the time we needed to speak with stakeholders to make sure that we got this right,\u201d Jacki Cooper Melmed, Polis\u2019 chief legal counsel, said in an interview. \u201c\u2026 We needed to get it done far enough in advance of the deadline (to turn in signatures) so that we could basically ensure access to the ballot this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper Melmed said the governor\u2019s office consulted with the Secretary of State\u2019s Office and county clerks on the language in the executive order. She said she\u2019s confident that the processes drafted by Secretary of State Jena Griswold will prevent fraud and ensure the integrity of elections.<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers
Volunteers with the Due Date Too Late campaign brought boxes of signatures to the Secretary of State\u2019s Office on Wednesday afternoon.<\/span>Courtesy of Sage Naumann, Colorado Senate Republicans<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

There will likely be some sort of draft form that will be used for signatures submitted by email and mail. Gathering signatures will not be as simple as asking people to click a box on a webpage, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secretary of State\u2019s Office knows what it\u2019s doing and how to guard against (fraud),\u201d Cooper Melmed said. \u201cWe believe that the secretary of state will set up a process that guards against fraud like all of our other processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two questions are already on the statewide 2020 ballot. One asks voters to reintroduce wolves on the Western Slope and the other requires voters to be a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n

The executive order only affects ballot issues.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

to provide safe means for petitioning during pandemic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,819,28,1509],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines","tag-state-elections"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88382,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64792\/revisions\/88382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64792"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}