The Colorado Personhood Coalition will continue its fight to have the Colorado Personhood amendment included on the ballot, despite the Colorado secretary of state announcing that the measure fell 3,700 signatures short of the required number. According to Personhood USA, the Colorado Personhood Coalition has reviewed the secretary of state’s claims and discovered that entire petitions were discarded, even if they contained valid signatures.
Gualberto Garcia Jones, J.D., a legal analyst for Personhood USA, explained, “The law states that we have 30 days to file a challenge, and we fully intend to do so. Based on the Secretary of State’s 5% sample, we have calculated that we will be able to recover the signatures necessary to appear on the ballot.” Election law specialist Shayne Madsen of the Jackson Kelly law firm has been hired by the Colorado Personhood Coalition as the fight continues.
The Personhood Amendment states, “(1) Purpose. In order to affirm basic human dignity, be it resolved that the right to life in this constitution applies equally to all innocent persons. (2). Effect. The intentional killing of any innocent person is prohibited.” Issues such as birth control, in vitro fertilization, medical treatment for a mother, and miscarriage are addressed in the proposed amendment. The amendment explains how each of these issues would be affected if the law is enacted.
Despite the action by the Colorado secretary of state, over 100,000 signatures were collected. Garcia Jones continued, “This disqualification is by an extremely narrow number, and as we have seen thousands of valid voter signatures discarded unnecessarily, we will be filing a challenge to ensure that every Colorado voter’s voice is heard, and that every signature counts.
“We did the work, we gathered the signatures despite a significant loss of time, and we will fight to ensure that every valid signature is counted,” said Garcia Jones.
You can read the full text of the Colorado Personhood Amendment here.
