August 05, 2020 09:31 AM UTC

Please Stop Trolling The Ballot

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Denver Post’s Saja Hindi reports while we roll our eyes back to the front:

Advocates of a proposed Colorado ballot measure for expunging nonviolent criminal offenses only turned in 255 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office by the petition deadline Monday.

They needed at least 124,632 to qualify, raising the question of why organizers submitted signatures at all. Designated representatives Stephen and Paul Ball did not return requests for comment Monday and Tuesday.

The deficit made it an easy call for elections officials to deem the petition insufficient Monday…

We asked the same question last summer when a pair of (decidedly) casually-dressed gentlemen drove the two hours up from Pueblo to deliver a whopping four valid signatures in support of a recall of Senate President Leroy Garcia–why the hell do people do this? If you don’t have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, like not enough remotely close to the number, you don’t have to show up at the Secretary of State to humiliate yourself. And make no mistake this is terribly humiliating, even if the individual(s) doing it think it’s some kind of cool political statement.

In this case, it’s an issue that might have had more support in different circumstances unlike the failed recall attempt against Sen. Garcia–so maybe don’t make a joke of it.