Colorado’s Marijuana Legalization Initiative Moves Forward
Signatures To Receive Line By Line Review
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s office announced that it will be necessary to review all 163,598 signatures, collected in support of Ballot Initiative 30, on Thursday. Colorado state law requires the Secretary’s office to review a random sample of the submitted signatures, a total of 8180 signatures for Initiative 30. Once completed, if the random sample projects that somewhere between 90 and 110 percent of the necessary signatures have been collected, then a line by line review is required.
from The Colorado Independent:
In this case, just over 54 percent of the signatures in the random sample were judged to be valid, meaning that extrapolated out over the 163,598 signatures collected, it can be predicted that 88,719 valid signatures were collected, which is 103.4 percent of the number needed, which puts in the range that triggers an automatic line by line review.
Mason Tvert, one of the organizers of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol, says the need to validate each signature is no big deal.
“This is just part of the process,” he said. “We are confident that we collected more than enough valid signatures to make the ballot. This is why initiative campaigns collect so many more signatures than they need.”
The Secretary of State’s office has until February 3 to complete the review. Spokesperson Rich Coolidge said the office “will be cranking to get it done.”
The need for a line by line review shocked many though, with Secretary Gessler’s spokesman, Rich Coolidge, noting that most groups either collect more than 110 percent or do not meet the threshold to trigger a review. Should the Secretary’s office find that the total number of certified signatures does not meet the required total, organizers for the initiative will have time to collect additional figures.
(image courtesy of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol)
| Follow Manic, Chill | | Subscribe to Manic, Chill(RSS) | | Subscribe via Email |
