(1)The general assembly declares that it
is not the intention of this article to limit or abridge in any manner the powers
reserved to the people in the initiative and referendum, but rather to properly
safeguard, protect, and preserve inviolate for them these modern instrumentalities
of democratic government.
(2)(a) The general assembly finds, determines, and declares that:
(I)The initiative process relies upon the truthfulness of circulators who
obtain the petition signatures to qualify a ballot issue for the statewide ballot and
that during the 2008 general election, the honesty of many petition circulators was
at issue because of practices that included: Using third parties to circulate petition
sections, even though the third parties did not sign the circulator's affidavi
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(1) The general assembly declares that it
is not the intention of this article to limit or abridge in any manner the powers
reserved to the people in the initiative and referendum, but rather to properly
safeguard, protect, and preserve inviolate for them these modern instrumentalities
of democratic government.
(2) (a) The general assembly finds, determines, and declares that:
(I) The initiative process relies upon the truthfulness of circulators who
obtain the petition signatures to qualify a ballot issue for the statewide ballot and
that during the 2008 general election, the honesty of many petition circulators was
at issue because of practices that included: Using third parties to circulate petition
sections, even though the third parties did not sign the circulator's affidavit, were
not of legal age to act as circulators, and were paid in cash to conceal their
identities; providing false names or residential addresses in the circulator's
affidavits, a practice that permits circulators to evade detection by persons
challenging the secretary of state's sufficiency determination; circulating petition
sections without even a rudimentary understanding of the legal requirements
relating to petition circulation; and obtaining the signatures of persons who
purported to notarize circulator affidavits, even though such persons were not
legally authorized to act as notaries or administer the required oath;
(II) The per signature compensation system used by many petition entities
provides an incentive for circulators to collect as many signatures as possible,
without regard for whether all petition signers are registered electors; and
(III) Many petition circulator affidavits are thus executed without regard for
specific requirements of law that are designed to assist in the prevention of fraud,
abuse, and mistake in the initiative process.
(b) The general assembly further finds, determines, and declares that:
(I) Because petition circulators who reside in other states typically leave
Colorado immediately after petitions are submitted to the secretary of state for
verification, a full and fair examination of fraud related to petition circulation is
frustrated, and as a result, the secretary of state has been forced to give effect to
certain circulator affidavits that were not properly verified and thus were not prima
facie evidence of the validity of petition signatures on affected petition sections;
and
(II) The courts have not had authority to exercise jurisdiction over fraudulent
acts by circulators and notaries public in connection with petition signatures
reviewed as part of the secretary of state's random sample.
(c) Therefore, the general assembly finds, determines, and declares that:
(I) As a result of the problems identified in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this
subsection (2), one or more ballot measures appeared on the statewide ballot at the
2008 general election even though significant numbers of the underlying petition
signatures were obtained in direct violation of Colorado law and the accuracy of the
secretary of state's determination of sufficiency could not be fully evaluated by the
district court; and
(II) For the initiative process to operate as an honest expression of the
voters' reserved legislative power, it is essential that circulators truthfully verify all
elements of their circulator affidavits and make themselves available to participate
in challenges to the secretary of state's determination of petition sufficiency.