May 30, 2006 08:00 AM UTC

Petition Results May be Slow in Coming

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• by: Colorado Pols

There hasn’t been much word about which candidates turned in enough petitions to make the ballot, and as The Denver Post reports, the Secretary of State’s office has been swamped trying to catch up:

Secretary of State Gigi Dennis‘ election staff is so swamped with petitions from candidates hoping to make the November ballot that she’s hired 35 temporary staffers to help out. SOS spokeswoman Dana Williams said the staff planned to work through the Memorial Day weekend scrutinizing the 65,000 or so signatures.

While a congressional candidate needs just 1,000 signatures and a gubernatorial candidate needs 10,500, the candidates typically collect at least twice the required number in order to overcome any ineligibles. For initiative petitions, only a sampling of the required signatures are checked. For candidate petitions, Williams said, signatures have to be checked line by line.

Dennis has until June 9 to notify candidates of the results. People with questions about signatures can file protests and make their cases in formal hearings before then.