A Denver District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit Thursday that sought to revoke the conservative-backed Amendment 78 from the Nov. 2 ballot or invalidate the votes cast on that question.
Amendment 78 asks voters to require the Colorado legislature to approve all state money that comes from outside the state government, such as funding for emergency relief, federal funding for state programs, legal settlements, transportation funding, grants and even gifts and donations.
Judge J. Eric Elliff ruled that the complaint came too late, saying state statute requires challenges to ballot measures be made within 15 days of certification by the secretary of state’s office. The lawsuit came eight days after that deadline.
Scott Wasserman, president of the progressive Bell Policy Center and Bell Action Network, and Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue filed the lawsuit against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and the two people registered with her office in connection with Amendment 78: Michael Fields, executive director of conservative political group Colorado Rising State Action, which is behind the measure, and attorney Suzanne Taheri.
The plaintiffs argued that the measure doesn’t meet the constitutional requirement that ballot questions in an off-year election must involve the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Fields said he wasn’t surprised by the ruling in what he called a “frivolous lawsuit.”
“They didn’t do it in time and I don’t think they have a case on it, so we’re just focused on trying to pass this measure,” he said.
Wasserman and his team disagree that this was the timeline they needed to follow because they believe the complaint falls under another process for violations of the state’s election code — which the judge rejected. Wasserman said they likely will appeal the case and have three days to do so.
“The judge didn’t rule on the substance of the issue, so this remains an unanswered question, and so long as it remains unanswered, people will continue to exploit what we think is a wrong interpretation of TABOR,” he said.
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