SOS announces petitions to recall Payne are ‘sufficient’

In a “Statement of Sufficiency” sent out from the office of the Colorado Secretary of State (SOS) on Thursday, June 23, it was announced that the Colorado Secretary of State has found the petition to recall District Attorney Alonzo Payne to be “sufficient,” meeting those requirements as determined by state statute.

Four weeks ago, following a concentrated, Valley-wide effort involving more than a dozen city staff and numerous employees whose goal was to gain 6,000 signatures, employees with the City of Alamosa delivered petitions bearing 5,974 signatures to the Elections Division of the Secretary of State. Upon receiving the petitions, personnel with the SOS conducted a thorough review, including checking the eligibility of each signature submitted.

Those leading the recall effort were only required to have 3,996 valid signatures — a number based upon a percentage of those who voted in the last election as determined by statute — for the petition to be deemed sufficient.

The goal of 6,000 had been set to allow for any signatures that may be rejected for reasons of eligibility.

In the announcement from the SOS, a summary of the “petition verification summary”  indicated that 5,974 signatures had been submitted; the number of entries rejected (invalid) totaled 1,217, resulting in 961 more valid signatures being submitted than what was required.

Under Colorado law, there is a 15-day protest period, during which any eligible elector can file a protest with the office of the SOS. Barring a successful protest, at the conclusion of the protest period, the Governor will be responsible for setting an election date.