Colorado § 1-3-102 - Precinct caucuses.

§ 1-3-102. Precinct caucuses.

(1) (a) (I) Precinct committeepersons and delegates to county assemblies must be elected at precinct caucuses that must be held in a public place or in a private home that is open to the public during the caucus in or proximate to each precinct at a time and place to be fixed by the county central committee or executive committee of each political party. The precinct caucuses must be held in each even-numbered year on a date no earlier than the first Tuesday in March and no later than the first Saturday after the first Tuesday in March. The county central committee shall notify the secretary of state and the clerk and recorder of each county in the state of the precinct caucus date on or before January 2 of the year in which the election is held.

(II) and (III) Repealed.

(b) Any private home in which a precinct caucus is to be held shall be accessible to persons with disabilities in accordance with the rules of the county central committee or executive committee of each political party. The rules shall specify guidelines for determining whether a private home is accessible to persons with disabilities for purposes of this subsection (1) and for determining controversies regarding such accessibility.

(2) (a) The participants at the precinct caucus shall also elect two precinct committeepersons. Any person eighteen years of age or older, or a person sixteen years of age or older who is preregistered to vote, may be a candidate for the office of precinct committeeperson if he or she has been a resident of the precinct for twenty-two days and has been affiliated with the political party holding the precinct caucus for a period of at least twenty-two days preceding the date of the precinct caucus; except that any person who has attained the age of eighteen years, has attained the age of sixteen years and has preregistered to vote, or who has become a naturalized citizen during the twenty-two days immediately preceding the precinct caucus may be a candidate for the office of precinct committeeperson even though he or she has been affiliated with the political party for less than twenty-two days as shown in the statewide voter registration system. The two people receiving the highest number of votes at the caucus for precinct committeeperson are elected as the precinct committeepersons of the precinct. If two or more candidates for precinct committeeperson receive an equal and the second highest number of votes, or if three or more candidates receive an equal and the highest number of votes, the election must be determined by lot by those candidates. All disputes regarding the election of precinct committeepersons are determined by the credentials committees of the respective party assemblies. The names of the committeepersons elected must be certified to the county assembly of the political party by the officers of the caucus. The presiding officer and secretary of the county assembly shall file a certified list of the names and addresses, by precinct, of those persons elected as precinct committeepersons with the county clerk and recorder within four days after the date of the county assembly.

(b) Within ten days after the boundaries of an existing precinct are changed or a new precinct is created, the members of the party county central committee vacancy committee shall select members to fill the vacancies for precinct committeepersons.

(c) Repealed.

(d) The person elected as committeeperson at the caucus shall assume the office immediately following the caucus. Causes for removal of the elected committeeperson from office shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

(I) In the case of removal by the credentials committee at the county assembly, the person does not meet the qualifications for committeeperson;

(II) In the case of removal by the county central committee, the person has moved from the precinct or has changed affiliation.

(III) Repealed.

(3) and (4) Repealed.

(5) Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, a participant at a precinct caucus may participate remotely, including casting the participant's vote by email, mail, telephone, or through an internet-based application if allowed by the party's rules.

Source: L. 80: Entire article R&RE, p. 315, § 1, effective January 1, 1981. L. 81: (2)(a) and (2)(b) amended, (2)(c) and (2)(d) added, and (3) and (4) repealed, pp. 304, 309, §§ 1, 12, effective January 1, 1982. L. 82: (2)(a) amended, p. 216, § 1, effective February 19. L. 85: (1) amended, p. 248, § 3, effective July 1. L. 90: (1) amended, p. 303, § 3, effective June 8. L. 91: (2)(a) amended, p. 618, § 29, effective May 1. L. 92: Entire article amended, p. 665, § 3, effective January 1, 1993. L. 93: (2)(c) and (2)(d)(III) repealed, p. 1404, § 28, effective July 1. L. 94: (2)(a) amended, p. 1768, § 23, effective January 1, 1995. L. 95: (2)(a) amended, p. 828, § 24, effective July 1. L. 98: (1) amended, p. 633, § 4, effective May 6. L. 99: (1) and (2)(a) amended, p. 761, § 16, effective May 20; (1) amended, p. 100, § 1, effective August 4; (2)(d)(II) amended, p. 159, § 6, effective August 4. L. 2001: (1) amended, p. 1001, § 2, effective August 8. L. 2002: (1)(a) amended, p. 132, § 2, effective March 27. L. 2005: (1)(a)(I) amended, p. 1398, § 12, effective June 6; (1)(a)(I) amended, p. 1433, § 12, effective June 6. L. 2007: (1)(a)(I) amended and (1)(a)(III) added, p. 1988, § 3, effective August 3. L. 2011: (1)(a)(I) amended, (SB 11-189), ch. 243, p. 1062, § 2, effective May 27. L. 2016: (2)(a) amended, (SB 16-142), ch. 173, p. 574, § 26, effective May 18. Initiated 2016: (1)(a)(III) amended, Proposition 107, effective upon proclamation of the Governor, December 27, 2016. See L. 2017, p. 2820. L. 2019: (1)(a)(III) amended, (HB 19-1278), ch. 326, p. 3009, § 13, effective August 2. L. 2020: (2)(a) amended, (HB 20-1289), ch. 2, p. 3, § 2, effective March 3. L. 2021: (1)(a)(I) and (2)(a) amended, (1)(a)(III) repealed, and (5) added, (SB 21-250), ch. 282, p. 1637, § 12, effective June 21.

Editor's note: (1) Subsection (1) is similar to former § 1-14-205 (1), and subsections (2) to (4) are similar to former § 1-14-206, as they existed prior to 1980.

(2) Amendments to subsection (1) by Senate Bill 99-025 and Senate Bill 99-027 were harmonized.

(3) Subsection (1)(a)(II)(B) provided for the repeal of subsection (1)(a)(II), effective July 1, 2002. (See L. 2002, p. 132.)

(4) This section was amended by initiative in 2016. The vote count on Proposition 107 at the general election held November 8, 2016, was as follows:

FOR: 1,701,599

AGAINST: 953,246

Cross references: (1) For the declaration of the people of Colorado in Proposition 107, see section 1 on p. 2815, Session Laws of Colorado 2017.

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

ANNOTATION

Applied in Carstens v. Lamm, 543 F. Supp. 68 (D. Colo. 1982).