Secretary of state's office sued over signature disqualifications

Rocky Mountain News

Published October 4, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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A group backing Amendment 82 is suing the Colorado secretary of state's office claiming 8,000 petition signatures were wrongfully disqualified, which kept the measure off the November ballot.

Members of Coloradans for Equal Opportunity said that on Aug. 4 the group turned in 117,871 signatures in support of Amendment 82, which would have preserved affirmative action programs in the state.

Of those nearly 118,000 signatures, only 76,047 were required to put the measure on the ballot.

However, the secretary of state's office declared that nearly half of the signatures turned in were invalid, and refused to certify Amendment 82 for the ballot.

Group members said they reviewed the signatures and found the secretary of state's office had thrown out 5,200 signatures for no apparent reason.

According to the group, another 2,800 signatures were declared invalid because of a technicality - the county name was not given as part of the voter's address.

By law, a challenge to the secretary of state's finding of insufficiency must be filed within 30 days.

However, since the November ballot has been certified without Amendment 82, the group's members said they hope for redress by having it placed on the 2010 ballot.

Amendment 82 was proposed as a countermeasure to Amendment 46, which is on the ballot this year.

Amendment 46, dubbed the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, would prohibit the state from granting preferential treatment to anyone on the basis of race, sex, or ethnicity in hiring, education and contracts.

The measure is backed by California-based American Civil Rights Institute, which is headed by black entrepreneur Ward Connolly, who opposes affirmative action programs based on race or gender.

Similar measures have passed in California, Washington and Michigan.

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