State verifies signatures for recall; Morse files protest (CO gun grabber recalled!!!)

Enough signatures were verified Tuesday to make Senate President John Morse the first state-level elected official to face a recall election, but Morse isn't going to ballot without a fight.

The secretary of state's office verified that 10,137 registered voters in Senate District 11 - west and central Colorado Springs - signed a petition to recall Morse through a election.

Only 7,178 signatures are necessary to take the issue to voters in coming months.

But a voter in Morse's district challenged the petition a few hours after the signatures were verified Tuesday, saying it did not include all the language required under law.

Catherine Kleinsmith filed the protest because the circulated petition didn't specifically demand the election of a successor for Morse. Her protest says the omission of that language invalidates every signature submitted to the state.

"It's just so ironic that these interests, seeking to force an election that most District 11 voters don't want, would skip over key portions of the Colorado Constitution," said Christy LeLait, executive director of the El Paso County Democratic Party, who is also managing Morse's campaign to stay in office.

If the issue does go to ballot voters will first be asked whether Morse should be kicked out of office and, if so, who should replace him. Alternative candidates can get their names on the ballot to contest the incumbent.

Morse was targeted for recall by a group called El Paso Freedom Defense Fund over his support of several gun laws and his leadership style which they said stifled public debate on the legislation.

"We were expecting the most frivolous legal challenges to this and we're prepared to fight this," said a new spokesperson for the group Jessica Kerns, of Denver who opposed the gun legislation at the Capitol this spring. "We're prepared to defend every single petition so that the peoples' voices can be heard."

Three other democrats faced recall petition drives but only Sen. Angela Giron, D-Pueblo, had signatures turned in to be verified by the state. An announcement is expected in coming weeks whether 11,500 of the 13,500 signatures turned in are valid registered voters in Giron's district.

In the Morse recall drive 16,198 signatures were turned in and of those 6,061 were rejected for a variety of issues including signers not living in the district or not being a registered voter.

Kleinsmith's appeal will be ruled upon by Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler. His ruling could be appealed in court and should the Democrats be unsuccessful, Morse still is entitled to a 15-day period to challenge the signatures for other reasons.

If challenges to the signatures are unsuccessful a recall election likely would be held in August.

These would be the first state-level elected officials to face a recall vote in Colorado, according to Joshua Spivak, a professor at Wagner College in New York who tracks and studies recall efforts.

If no protests to the recall are successful, the governor will set a date for the election during a 30 day window that begins roughly two months after Tuesday.

According to the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder's Election Office it will cost the county roughly $152,000 to hold a stand-alone election for the recall.

(CO gun grabber recalled!!!)

Cart before the horse. Morse hasn't been recalled yet.

CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF COLORADO
ARTICLE XXI RECALL FROM OFFICE

Colo. Const. Art. XXI, Section 1 (2012)

Section 1. State officers may be recalled

Every elective public officer of the state of Colorado may be recalled from office at any time by the registered electors entitled to vote for a successor of such incumbent through the procedure and in the manner herein provided for, which procedure shall be known as the recall, and shall be in addition to and without excluding any other method of removal provided by law.

The procedure hereunder to effect the recall of an elective public officer shall be as follows:

A petition signed by registered electors entitled to vote for a successor of the incumbent sought to be recalled, equal in number to twenty-five percent of the entire vote cast at the last preceding election for all candidates for the position which the incumbent sought to be recalled occupies, demanding an election of the successor to the officer named in said petition, shall be filed in the office in which petitions for nominations to office held by the incumbent sought to be recalled are required to be filed; provided, if more than one person is required by law to be elected to fill the office of which the person sought to be recalled is an incumbent, then the said petition shall be signed by registered electors entitled to vote for a successor to the incumbent sought to be recalled equal in number to twenty-five percent of the entire vote cast at the last preceding general election for all candidates for the office, to which the incumbent sought to be recalled was elected as one of the officers thereof, said entire vote being divided by the number of all officers elected to such office, at the last preceding general election; and such petition shall contain a general statement, in not more than two hundred words, of the ground or grounds on which such recall is sought, which statement is intended for the information of the registered electors, and the registered electors shall be the sole and exclusive judges of the legality, reasonableness and sufficiency of such ground or grounds assigned for such recall, and said ground or grounds shall not be open to review.

Section 2. Form of recall petition

Any recall petition may be circulated and signed in sections, provided each section shall contain a full and accurate copy of the title and text of the petition; and such recall petition shall be filed in the office in which petitions for nominations to office held by the incumbent sought to be recalled are required to be filed.

The signatures to such recall petition need not all be on one sheet of paper, but each signer must add to his signature the date of his signing said petition, and his place of residence, giving his street number, if any, should he reside in a town or city. The person circulating such sheet must make and subscribe an oath on said sheet that the signatures thereon are genuine, and a false oath, willfully so made and subscribed by such person, shall be perjury and be punished as such. All petitions shall be deemed and held to be sufficient if they appear to be signed by the requisite number of signers, and such signers shall be deemed and held to be registered electors, unless a protest in writing under oath shall be filed in the office in which such petition has been filed, by some registered elector, within fifteen days after such petition is filed, setting forth specifically the grounds of such protest, whereupon the officer with whom such petition is filed shall forthwith mail a copy of such protest to the person or persons named in such petition as representing the signers thereof, together with a notice fixing a time for hearing such protest not less than five nor more than ten days after such notice is mailed. All hearings shall be before the officer with whom such protest is filed, and all testimony shall be under oath. Such hearings shall be summary and not subject to delay, and must be concluded within thirty days after such petition is filed, and the result thereof shall be forthwith certified to the person or persons representing the signers of such petition. In case the petition is not sufficient it may be withdrawn by the person or a majority of the persons representing the signers of such petition, and may, within fifteen days thereafter, be amended and refiled as an original petition. The finding as to the sufficiency of any petition may be reviewed by any state court of general jurisdiction in the county in which such petition is filed, upon application of the person or a majority of the persons representing the signers of such petition, but such review shall be had and determined forthwith. The sufficiency, or the determination of the sufficiency, of the petition referred to in this section shall not be held, or construed, to refer to the ground or grounds assigned in such petition for the recall of the incumbent sought to be recalled from office thereby.

When such petition is sufficient, the officer with whom such recall petition was filed, shall forthwith submit said petition, together with a certificate of its sufficiency to the governor, who shall thereupon order and fix the date for holding the election not less than thirty days nor more than sixty days from the date of submission of said petition; provided, if a general election is to be held within ninety days after the date of submission of said petition, the recall election shall be held as part of said general election.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.