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Colorado > Colorado Electoral Code > Certificates of Election And Election Contests

1-11-216. Judgment in contests for county and nonpartisan elections

Overview of Statute

The district court will decide the winner of any contested election and the final outcome of any contested ballot issue or ballot question. These decisions will effectuate the process of a person taking office or not taking office, thus creating a vacancy in office.

Statute

The district court shall pronounce judgment on whether the contestee or any other person was legally elected to the contested office or on whether the ballot issue or ballot question was enacted. The court’s judgment declaring a person elected entitles that person to take office when the term of office begins, upon proper qualification. If the judgment is against a contestee who has received a certificate, the judgment annuls the certificate. If the court finds that no person was legally elected, the judgment shall set aside the election and declare a vacancy in the office contested.

 

 

Source: L. 92: Entire article R&RE, p. 792, § 14, effective January 1, 1993.L. 94: Entire section amended, p. 1178, § 68, effective July 1.

Editor’s note: This section is similar to former § 1-11-213 as it existed prior to 1992.

Definition [Ballot issue]

A nonrecall,  citizen-initiated  petition  or legislatively-referred
measure which is authorized by the state constitution, including a question as defined in  sections 1-41-102 (3) and 1-41-103 (3), enacted in Senate Bill 93-98.

Definition [Ballot]

(a) A federal write-in absentee ballot;

(b) A ballot specifically prepared or distributed for use by a covered voter in accordance with this article; or

(c) A ballot cast by a covered voter in accordance with this article.

(2) “Covered voter” means:

(a) A uniformed-service voter defined in paragraph (a) of subsection (9) of this section who is a resident of this state but who is absent from this state by reason of active duty and who otherwise satisfies this state’s voter eligibility requirements;

(b) An overseas voter who, before leaving the United States, was last eligible to vote in this state and, except for a state residency requirement, otherwise satisfies this state’s voter eligibility requirements;

(c) An overseas voter who, before leaving the United States, would have been last eligible to vote in this state had the voter then been of voting age and, except for a state residency requirement, otherwise satisfies this state’s voter eligibility requirements; or

(d) An overseas voter who was born outside the United States, is not described in paragraph (b) or (c) of this subsection (2), and, except for a state residency requirement, otherwise satisfies this state’s voter eligibility requirements if the last place where a parent, legal guardian, spouse, or civil union partner of the voter was, or under this article would have been, eligible to vote before leaving the United States is within this state.

C.R.S. § 1-8.3-102.

Definition [Person]

Any natural person, partnership, committee, association, corporation, labor organization, political party, or other organization or group of persons. Section 2(11) of article XXVIII of the state constitution.

Definition [Section]

A bound compilation of initiative forms approved by the secretary of state, which shall include pages that contain the warning required by section 1-40-110 (1), the ballot title, the abstract required by section 1-40-110 (3), and a copy of the proposed measure; succeeding pages that contain the warning, the ballot title, and ruled lines numbered consecutively for registered electors’ signatures; and a final page that contains the affidavit required by section 1-40-111 (2). Each section shall be consecutively prenumbered by the petitioner prior to circulation.

Definition [Election]

Any election under the “Uniform Election Code of 1992” or the “Colorado Municipal Election Code of 1965”, article 10 of title 31, C.R.S. C.R.S. § 1-7.5-103.

Cases

Colorado Cases

Case Name: Nordloh v. Packard

Citation: 101 P. 787 (Colo. 1909)

Year: 1909

Case PDF: Nordloh v. Packard

Case Summary: Holding that once judge recused himself for bias and told the parties that he was finding a replacement, it was error for him to try the case.

Out-of-State Cases

Federal Cases