On April 21, a Colorado state trial court put Michelle Ferrigno Warren on the June 30 Democratic primary ballot for U.S. Senate, even though she needed 10,500 valid signatures and she only had 5,383 valid signatures.
The decision finds that it is customary and rational, in normal times, that petitions receive the most signatures in the weeks just before the deadline. In a state like Colorado, where the deadline for primary petitions was March 17, that is partly due to weather. Early petitioning in cold weather periods is less productive, partly because fewer people are outside.
In this case, the court found that it was almost impossible to hire paid circulators early in the year, because so many of them were working for very high payment for various presidential primary candidates around the nation. Mike Bloomberg’s campaign in some instances was paying $20 per signature, because Bloomberg started so late that his petitions were rush jobs.
Here is the 28-page decision in Warren v Griswold, 20cv-31077. It says, “The Court is mindful that it is reading and interpreting the Election Code and Colorado Supreme Court precedent in a nearly empty courthouse while a global pandemic is unfolding outside its windows…strict adherence to the signature requirement for primary petitions must yield to this unprecedented public health emergency.
Also, “signature collection is a ‘very personal activity’ …In the best of times, engaging strangers in public, holding their attention, and acquiring their signatures on a petition is challenging.”
