Colorado § 37-46-142 - Debt election contests.

§ 37-46-142. Debt election contests.

(1) Any election declared to have carried on an authorization to issue any bonds, by approval of the bond question, or otherwise to incur an indebtedness by approval of the question thereon may be contested by any elector of the district or subdistrict holding the debt election by suit against it as contestee and defendant in any district court of any county in which the district or subdistrict holding the election is wholly or partially situate:

(a) When illegal votes have been received or legal votes rejected at the polls in sufficient numbers to change the results;

(b) For any error or mistake on the part of any of the judges of election, any county clerk and recorder, the secretary of the district, or their respective officers and employees in counting or declaring the result of the election, if the error or mistake is sufficient to change the result;

(c) For malconduct, fraud, or corruption on the part of any of the judges of election, any county clerk and recorder, the secretary of the district, or their respective officers and employees, if the malconduct, fraud, or corruption is sufficient to change the result;

(d) When the bonds or other indebtedness is authorized to be issued for an invalid purpose; or

(e) For any other cause which shows that the bonds or other indebtedness is not validly authorized at the election.

(2) The style and form of process, the manner of service of process and papers, the fees of officers, and judgment for costs and execution thereon shall be according to the rules and practices of the court.

(3) Before the court shall take jurisdiction of the contest, the contestor shall file with the clerk of the court a bond, with sureties, to be approved by the judge thereof, running to the district or subdistrict holding the debt election as contestee and conditioned to pay all costs in case of failure of the contestor to maintain his contest.

(4) When the validity of any bond or other indebtedness election is contested, the plaintiff or plaintiffs, within thirty days after the returns of the election are canvassed and the results thereof declared and published, or last published, as the case may be, shall file with the clerk of the court a verified written complaint setting forth specifically:

(a) The name of the party contesting the election and a statement that the plaintiff or each plaintiff is an elector of the district or subdistrict holding the election;

(b) The proposition or propositions voted on at the election which are contested, the name of the district or the subdistrict as defendant and contestee, and the date of the election; and

(c) The particular grounds of such contest.

(5) No such contest shall be maintained and no election shall be set aside or held invalid unless such a complaint is filed within the period prescribed in subsection (4) of this section.

(6) Except as otherwise provided in this article, the election laws pertaining to contested election cases of municipal offices as provided in part 13 of article 10 of title 31, C.R.S., of the "Colorado Municipal Election Code of 1965", as from time to time amended, shall be applicable to bond or other indebtedness elections; but any such contest shall be regarded as one contesting the outcome of the vote on the proposition authorizing the issuance of securities or otherwise incurring the indebtedness, rather than election to office, and the district or subdistrict as contestee, rather than a person declared to have been elected to office, shall be regarded as the defendant.

(7) If the board of directors declares the proposition authorizing the issuance of bonds or otherwise incurring the indebtedness to have carried and no contest is duly filed or if such a contest is filed after it is favorably terminated, the board may issue the bonds or otherwise incur the indebtedness authorized at the election at one time or from time to time.

Source: L. 77: Entire section added, p. 1645, § 5, effective June 9.