Here's an article from today's Rocky Mountain News with an update on Marc Holtzman's chances to make the August 8th primary ballot. From the article, "Gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman's fight to get into the Republican primary may be more difficult than he and his advocates are predicting.
That's because even if he is successful in reinstating every single Republican signature thrown out in the 1st and 7th congressional districts, he'll still fall hundreds of signatures short of the number he needs to get onto the Aug. 8 ballot. That means the future of his campaign hinges on the ability to find the valid signatures he needs among another 4,239 rejected, those signed by people who didn't list either their party affiliation or their congressional district. If he fails, the months of campaigning and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent will have been for naught...
"A Rocky Mountain News examination of those rejected signatures showed that Holtzman will still be short even if he is successful in having every single Republican signature reinstated in the two congressional districts. That's because in the 1st District, for example, the rejected signatures included only 157 Republicans. That means that even if all of them are reinstated, Holtzman would still be 176 signatures short in Denver. Ditto the 7th District. Even if all 133 rejected Republican signatures are reinstated there, Holtzman would still be 277 short. That's why he must turn to the 4,239 rejected signatures from people who didn't list either their party affiliation or their congressional district. A Rocky Mountain News examination of that group of signatures showed that Holtzman's campaign faces several different challenges in finding the numbers it needs: More than half of those signatures - 2,497 - were from people the Secretary of State's Office could not find in the list of registered voters in its computer system; Some of them may have only recently registered, but others may not ever have registered; Another 814 of them were rejected because while they were found on the list of registered voters, their addresses had changed; While this group may be the most likely to be reinstated, 225 of them aren't in either the 1st or 7th districts."
According to the Denver Post Holtzmans's complaint is taking the state into uncharted election waters. From the article, "Marc Holtzman is taking Colorado into uncharted territory. In his quest to make the primary ballot, the Republican gubernatorial hopeful has become the first person to challenge what was once considered established state law. And that may delay the secretary of state's office's certification of the Aug. 8 primary ballot, which in turn could hold up getting ballots to voters...
"State law requires that the ballot be certified by Friday and that each of the state's 64 counties print their ballots by July 7. A delay in printing could mean voters don't get their absentee or early voting ballots on time. At issue is who has jurisdiction to hear Holtzman's appeal of last week's ruling by the secretary of state that he did not have enough valid signatures to make the ballot. [Deputy Secretary of State Bill Hobbs] suspended a hearing on the matter Wednesday, saying he would await guidance from a judge on how to proceed. Although there is a five- day period to protest a ruling before the secretary of state, Holtzman's legal team - Mark Grueskin and John Head - has contended that the process spelled out in state law does not apply here. The statute, they say, refers only to cases in which Dennis finds sufficient signatures and someone objects to that finding. The law does not make reference to candidates such as Holtzman who have insufficient signatures. Grueskin said he will file suit in Denver District Court today and ask a judge to decide whether to delay certification of the ballot until the court rules on the jurisdiction issues. A court hearing could start as early as today."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
6:43:39 AM 
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