Colorado § 31-10-201 - Qualifications of municipal electors.

§ 31-10-201. Qualifications of municipal electors.

(1) Every person who has attained the age of eighteen years possessing the following qualifications is entitled to register to vote at all municipal elections:

(a) He is a citizen of the United States.

(b) The person is a resident of the municipal precinct and has resided in this state for twenty-two days immediately preceding the election at which the person offers to vote. In order to vote in a municipal election conducted under this article, a person must be a registered elector. An otherwise qualified and registered elector who moves from the municipal election precinct where registered to another precinct within the same municipality is permitted to cast a ballot for an election at the polling place in the precinct where registered.

(2) No person confined in any public prison is entitled to register or to vote at any regular or special election. Every person who was a qualified elector prior to such imprisonment and who is released by pardon or by having served his full term of imprisonment shall be vested with all the rights of citizenship except as otherwise provided in the state constitution.

(3) The judges of election, in determining the residence of a person offering to vote, shall be governed by the following rules, so far as they may be applicable:

(a) The residence of a person is the principal or primary home or place of abode of a person. Principal or primary home or place of abode is that home or place in which his habitation is fixed and to which a person, whenever he is absent, has the present intention of returning after a departure or absence therefrom, regardless of the duration of absence. In determining what is a principal or primary place of abode of a person, the following circumstances relating to such person may be taken into account: Business pursuits, employment, income sources, residence for income or other tax purposes, age, marital status, residence of parents, spouse, and children, if any, leaseholds, situs of personal and real property, and motor vehicle registration.

(b) A person shall not be considered to have lost his residence if he leaves his home and goes into another state or territory or another county or municipality of this state merely for temporary purposes with an intention of returning.

(c) A person shall not be considered to have gained a residence in this state or in any municipality in this state while retaining his home or domicile elsewhere.

(d) If a person moves to any other state or territory with the intention of making it his permanent residence, he shall be considered to have lost his residence in the municipality from which he moved.

(e) If a person moves from one municipality in this state to any other municipality in this state with the intention of making it his permanent residence, he shall be considered and held to have lost his residence in the municipality from which he moved.

(f) If the residence of a person is destroyed or becomes uninhabitable, due to a natural disaster or for any other reason, and the person has the present intention of returning to the residence once it is habitable or returning to a newly constructed residence at the same address, the person may continue to use the address of the destroyed or uninhabitable residence as the person's residence for purposes of this section. The residence given for motor vehicle registration and for state income tax purposes may be different from the address given for voting purposes pursuant to this subsection (3)(f).

(4) (a) For the purpose of voting and eligibility to office, no person is deemed to have gained a residence by reason of his presence or lost it by reason of his absence while in the civil or military service of this state or of the United States, nor while a student at any institution of higher education, nor while kept at public expense in any public prison or state institution unless the person is an employee or a member of the household of an employee of such prison or institution.

(b) The provisions of paragraph (a) of this subsection (4) notwithstanding, no person otherwise qualified under the provisions of this article shall be denied the right to vote at any municipal election solely because he is a student at an institution of higher education if such student, at any time when registration is provided for by law, files with the county clerk and recorder a written affidavit under oath, in such form as may be prescribed, that he has established a domicile in this state, that he has abandoned his parental or former home as a domicile, and that he is not registered as an elector in any other municipality of this state or of any other state. The fact that such affidavit has been filed shall be noted in the registration book.

(c) No provisions of this subsection (4) shall apply to the determination of residence or nonresidence status of students for any college or university purpose.

Source: L. 75: Entire title R&RE, p. 1040, § 1, effective July 1. L. 79: (3)(a) R&RE, p. 279, § 5, effective June 7. L. 81: (3)(d) and (3)(e) amended, p. 1498, § 2, effective July 1. L. 92: (1)(b) amended, p. 2178, § 39, effective June 2. L. 94: (1)(b) amended, p. 1773, § 38, effective January 1, 1995. L. 2014: (1)(b) amended, (HB 14-1164), ch. 2, p. 60, § 14, effective February 18. L. 2022: (3)(f) added, (SB 22-152), ch. 100, p. 477, § 3, effective April 13.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 31-10-201 as it existed prior to 1975.

Cross references: (1) For the classification of students for tuition purposes, see article 7 of title 23.

(2) For the legislative declaration in HB 14-1164, see section 1 of chapter 2, Session Laws of Colorado 2014.

ANNOTATION

One does not lose voting rights by reason of departure or absence from primary home, once it has been established. Gordon v. Blackburn, 618 P.2d 668 (Colo. 1980).

Voting rights preserved by expressing intent to return. Elector, who had moved outside city and into a rental home while he awaited building of new home within the city, preserved his right to vote in the city by expressing an intent to retain the city as his "official place of residence". Gordon v. Blackburn, 618 P.2d 668 (Colo. 1980).

But mere intention alone may not fulfill legal residence requirements. The mere intention to return to a former abode at some more or less indefinite time, with no other indicia of a home or domicile, may not fulfill the usual requirements of "legal residence" for voting purposes. Gordon v. Blackburn, 618 P.2d 668 (Colo. 1980).

Test for legal residence. This section requires an objective or "principal-or-primary-home" test for legal residence. Gordon v. Blackburn, 618 P.2d 668 (Colo. 1980).

Inquiry to be undertaken where nonresident elector wishes to retain former voting rights. The following inquiry must be undertaken if an elector has moved outside the boundaries of his voting precinct and wishes to retain his right to vote there: (1) Had the party established his principal or primary home or place of abode within the election precinct? and (2) was the individual's departure taken or does his absence continue with a "present intention of returning" to the precinct in the future? Gordon v. Blackburn, 618 P.2d 668 (Colo. 1980).

Because they have sufficient evidentiary support, trial court's findings that defendant had satisfied residency requirements necessary to hold office in Telluride, Colorado, and had not abandoned her principal or primary home in Colorado will not be disturbed. Trial court found defendant became a resident of Colorado in May of 1998. Defendant's return to New York was intended to be temporary and she did not lose her residency by her return to New York. Although defendant's voting and tax returns suggested New York residency, those acts were not sufficient to abandon her residency in Colorado. Circumstances justified trial court's conclusion that Telluride was defendant's principal or primary home. Zivian v. Brooke-Hitching, 28 P.3d 970 (Colo. App. 2001).