Proponents Meet Initiative Petition Filing Deadline with the Secretary of State

Denver CO, August 7, 2006 – Today Secretary of State Gigi Dennis announced six initiative petitions were filed with her office before the 3:00 p.m. deadline. The Secretary of State will promptly begin her review of signatures in order to determine if the proposed initiatives will be placed on the November ballot.

Initiative petitions filed with the Secretary of State are as follows:

• “Term Limits on Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Judges” – filed August 2
• “Ethics in Government” – filed August 2
• “Colorado Minimum Wage” – filed August 3
• “Marriage” – filed August 7
• “Marijuana Possession” – filed August 7
• “Domestic Partnerships” – filed August 7

Currently, two initiative petitions have already been approved for the November ballot. Those already approved for the ballot are as follows:

• Amendment #38 – “Petitions” – Approved on December 2, 2005
• Amendment #39 – “School District Expenditures for Education” – Approved on March 24, 2006

Proponents must file 67,829 valid signatures in order to be approved for the ballot and the Secretary of State has 30 days to make a determination of petition sufficiency. In order to complete signature verification Secretary Dennis has hired 60 temporary employees that will work two shifts in order to verify the validity of the signatures pursuant to state law. Proposals are numbered and placed on the ballot in the order in which statements of sufficiency are issued.

“The petition verification staff is working diligently to expedite the signature verification process as efficiently and effectively as possible,” Secretary of State Gigi Dennis said. “There is a lot of work that will be done in the upcoming month.”

The Secretary of State’s office will send out press releases notifying the press about the sufficiency or insufficiency of the proposed ballot initiatives.