July 09, 2008 07:02 AM UTC

Fraud Complaints Filed Against Initiative 53 & 59 Petitioners

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• by: High Plains Drifter

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

It’s only July and already an amendment and two divisive ballot initiatives being pushed by the Independence Institute and Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier are being accused of fraud.

First, the backers of Amendment 47 — which include beer heir Jonathan Coors and a number of unnamed donors — were sued back in May after a review of the petitions needed to get the amendment on the ballot found “a pattern of massive fraud,” such as thousands of duplicate signatures, signatures from unregistered voters, and even fake addresses. According to a Rocky Mountain News story, the petition circulators even had them notarized by people who “were not actually notaries.”

And now we’re seeing the whole thing replay over again with proposed initiatives 53 and 59. According to the Denver Post, complaints were filed against Jon Caldara and the Independence Institute earlier today for engaging in the same sort of deception:

The complaints allege that signature gatherers told people that they did not have to be registered voters to sign the petitions and that they could sign for someone else. A circulator also stated that she was adding signatures to a petition after it had already been notarized, the papers with Coffman’s office said.

Why do Jon Caldara, Ryan Frazier, and their allies think they can bend the rules? Coloradans deserve an honest debate about these measures, not trickery.