March 19, 2010 06:48 PM UTC

Democrats Cheer As "Eggmendment" Backers Submit More Signatures

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• by: Colorado Pols

Welcome good news for Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts, the Denver Post reports:

Colorado abortion opponents say they have enough signatures to put an abortion-ending proposal on the ballot this fall.

Abortion opponents turned in more than 46,000 signatures Thursday.

The group needs about 15,700 of those signatures to be deemed valid for the question to go on the ballot this fall.

There was some concern a few weeks ago when Secretary of State Bernie Buescher announced that proponents had failed to turn in enough valid signatures to survive a random audit–46,000 more should pad the margin much better for them, Cory Gardner must have passed it around his church at offering time with greater urgency.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade and don’t understand why a ballot initiative to essentially ban all abortions in Colorado would be good news for Democrats, we’ll say it again: in 2008, the “eggmendment” went down by a crushing margin, over 70%, while Republican candidates nervously evaded questions about it from their base. If hardcore pro-life groups get it on the ballot for 2010, it’s worth more in terms of turnout to Democrats who will show up in droves to vote this down, while Republicans risk alienating moderates by supporting it (and their own right flank if they don’t).

Democrats looking to get their base voters off the bench should consider this a huge gift.