On May 27, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed SB 189, which moves the primary from August to June. It also moves the qualifying deadline for an indepedendent presidential candidate, or the presidential nominee of an unqualified party, from late June to early June. And, it moves the petition deadline for a group to submit a petition to become a qualified party from March to January.

The petition deadline change for groups to become qualified parties is somewhat ameliorated by the fact that an unqualified party can still place nominees on the November ballot, with the party label, via candidate petitions that are due in June. However, the new earlier deadline for presidential independent candidates would likely be unconstitutional under Anderson v Celebrezze. Lower courts have invalidated petition deadlines for presidential candidates, in June, in five states, and there are no decisions since Anderson v Celebrezze upholding an independent presidential deadline in June.

Ironically, the current Secretary of State, Scott Gessler, represented the Socialist Party’s presidential candidate, Walt Brown, in a 2004 lawsuit filed by Brown against the July 4 deadline, and he won that case on statutory grounds. Yet now that Gessler is Secretary of State, instead of an attorney in private practice, he supported moving the deadline to early June. Thanks to Josh Putnam of Frontloading HQ for the news that the Governor signed the bill.