Family Attorney

Supporters of ballot initiatives flooded the secretary of state’s office with petitions Monday, the last day to turn in the 67,829 signatures required to get a measure on the ballot.

In practice, most groups doubled the number of signatures as the secretary of state undoubtedly will throw out some because they have technical problems or don’t come from a registered voter.

As of Monday’s deadline, supporters of six citizen initiatives had filed their petitions. The secretary of state has until Sept. 11 to certify that the signatures are valid and to place the measures on the ballot. (Two more citizen measures have made the ballot already, and the Legislature has added seven more.)

If the signatures check out, voters will be asked about such emotional issues as banning gay marriage, raising the minimum wage and legalizing marijuana.

Last November, Denver voters approved legalizing the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana. The proponents of that campaign want to repeat their success statewide.

“Despite the political differences in the state, it’s quite clear that many citizens are fed up with laws that prohibit the use - for adults - of marijuana while allowing a much more harmful substance - alcohol,” Mason Tvert, campaign director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, said at a small rally before turning in the signatures.

Some measures didn’t make the cut.

Backers of an oil and gas surface rights measure, which would have required drillers to compensate private landowners, did not turn in their petitions after getting about half the number of signatures required.

John Gorman, leader of the surface rights campaign, told The Durango Herald last month that his petition drive was in trouble after homebuilders abandoned the effort to cut a separate deal with the oil and gas industry.

Gorman said he and his allies had “lost their naiveté” about the political process and would be back in 2007 or 2008.

“We are not going away, and the traction this issue has with the citizens of Colorado is not going away,” Gorman said.

An initiative seeking to ban any legal relationships “similar to marriage” failed to gain enough signatures. That measure was designed to block Referendum I, which asks voters to legalize domestic partnerships for gays and lesbians.

However, fans of Referendum I completed their own petition drive to protect the referendum by declaring that domestic partnerships are not similar to marriage. They submitted 137,544 petitions Monday.

To add to the confusion, Coloradans for Marriage submitted about 131,000 signatures to put a ban on gay marriage into the constitution.

That means voters are likely to see three questions about gay relationships on their November ballots - the gay marriage ban, the legalization of domestic partnerships and a declaration that domestic partnerships are not similar to marriage.

Sean Duffy, head of Coloradans for Fairness, which supports domestic partnerships, said he’s not worried that voters will be confused by the two pro-gay measures.

“We think people will immediately see those words, and they’ll understand the two go together. They’ll get it,” Duffy said.

Duffy’s opponents face the same problem.

“I think by November, we should have it pretty plain out there and it will be clear what we’re trying to do,” said Ruben Mendez with Coloradans for Marriage, which supports the ban on gay marriage.

There’s even a ballot initiative to make it easier to pass ballot initiatives.

Amendment 38 would make it harder for opponents of an initiative to keep it off the ballot by challenging the validity of petition signatures or appealing to the courts to toss out the measure. It also would make it harder for the Legislature or local governments to overturn laws passed by the voters.

It is one of two questions that already has won a place on the ballot.

The other is Amendment 39, which would require school districts to spend 65 percent of their revenue on classroom-related expenses.

More : durangoherald.com