Colorado § 1-4-1204 - Names on ballots.

§ 1-4-1204. Names on ballots.

(1) Not later than sixty days before the presidential primary election, the secretary of state shall certify the names and party affiliations of the candidates to be placed on any presidential primary election ballots. The only candidates whose names shall be placed on ballots for the election shall be those candidates who:

(a) Repealed.

(b) Are seeking the nomination for president of a political party as a bona fide candidate for president of the United States pursuant to political party rules and are affiliated with a major political party that received at least twenty percent of the votes cast by eligible electors in Colorado at the last presidential election; and

(c) Have submitted to the secretary, not later than eighty-five days before the date of the presidential primary election, a notarized candidate's statement of intent together with either a nonrefundable filing fee of five hundred dollars or a petition signed by at least five thousand eligible electors affiliated with the candidate's political party who reside in the state. Candidate petitions must meet the requirements of parts 8 and 9 of this article 4, as applicable.

(1.5) No later than the sixty-fifth day before the presidential primary election, a person whose name has been qualified to be placed on the ballot may file with the secretary of state an affidavit stating that the person is not a candidate for the office of the president of the United States and requesting that the person's name not be included in the list of names certified by the secretary of state in accordance with subsection (1) of this section. The secretary of state shall not include in the list the name of a person who timely files an affidavit.

(2) The names of candidates appearing on any presidential primary ballot must be in an order determined by lot. The secretary of state shall determine the method of drawing lots.

(3) Except as otherwise prohibited by political party rules, the state chairperson of a political party may request the secretary to provide a place on the primary ballot for electors who have no presidential candidate preference to register a vote to send a noncommitted delegate to the political party's national convention. To be valid, this request must be received by the secretary of state no later than seventy days before the presidential primary election.

(4) Any challenge to the listing of any candidate on the presidential primary election ballot must be made in writing and filed with the district court in accordance with section 1-1-113 (1) no later than five days after the filing deadline for candidates. Any such challenge must provide notice in a summary manner of an alleged impropriety that gives rise to the complaint. No later than five days after the challenge is filed, a hearing must be held at which time the district court shall hear the challenge and assess the validity of all alleged improprieties. The district court shall issue findings of fact and conclusions of law no later than forty-eight hours after the hearing. The party filing the challenge has the burden to sustain the challenge by a preponderance of the evidence. Any order entered by the district court may be reviewed in accordance with section 1-1-113 (3).

Source: Initiated 2016: Entire part RC&RE, Proposition 107, effective upon proclamation of the Governor, December 27, 2016. See L. 2017, p. 2818. L. 2017: (1)(c) and (4) amended, (SB 17-305), ch. 216, p. 843, § 4, effective August 9. L. 2019: (1)(a) repealed and (1.5) added, (HB 19-1278), ch. 326, p. 3019, § 26, effective August 2.

Cross references: For the short title ("Colorado Votes Act") in HB 19-1278, see section 1 of chapter 326, Session Laws of Colorado 2019.

ANNOTATION

The state has exercised its plenary appointment power to limit presidential ballot access to those candidates who are constitutionally qualified to hold the office of president through the Uniform Election Code of 1992 (the Code). This section is the state's vehicle for advancing its interests. When eligible electors challenge the secretary of state's listing on the presidential primary ballot of a candidate who is not constitutionally qualified to assume office, this section, as exercised through a proceeding under § 1-1-113, offers an exclusive remedy under the Code. Anderson v. Griswold, 2023 CO 63, 543 P.3d 283, rev'd on other grounds, 601 U.S. 100 (2024).

"Qualified" in this section means, at a minimum, that a candidate is qualified under the U.S. Constitution to assume the duties of the office of president, as this section supplies the only textual basis in the Code for the secretary of state's authority to require a presidential primary candidate to attest to the candidate's qualifications for office in the candidate statement of intent. To read "qualified" not to encompass federal constitutional qualifications would undermine the purpose of the Code, which is to secure the purity of elections, while compromising the secretary of state's ability to advance that purpose. Anderson v. Griswold, 2023 CO 63, 543 P.3d 283, rev'd on other grounds, 601 U.S. 100 (2024).

Limiting presidential primary ballot access to constitutionally qualified candidates does not interfere with the first amendment rights of the Colorado Republican State Central Committee's right to determine the Republican nominees that will appear on the ballot. Under this section, the Colorado Republican State Central Committee has a right to decide the candidates with whom it affiliates and recognizes as bona fide, but a political party is not absolutely entitled to have its nominee appear on the ballot if the nominee has not complied with the state election law requirements. Anderson v. Griswold, 2023 CO 63, 543 P.3d 283, rev'd on other grounds, 601 U.S. 100 (2024).

The Code allows state courts, through challenges brought under this section and § 1-1-113 to assess the constitutional qualifications of a candidate and to order the secretary of state to exclude from the ballot candidates who are not qualified. These provisions advance the state's legitimate interest in protecting the integrity and practical functioning of the political process by allowing the secretary of state to exclude from the ballot candidates who are constitutionally prohibited from assuming office. These provisions neither infringe on a political party's associational rights nor compromise the validity of a court's ruling on complex factual and legal issues. Rather, they provide a robust vehicle through which to protect the purity of state elections. Anderson v. Griswold, 2023 CO 63, 543 P.3d 283, rev'd on other grounds, 601 U.S. 100 (2024).