Colorado voters will be asked in November whether to amend the state constitution to require that people verify their identity when submitting mail ballots by including the last four digits of their social security number or their full driver’s license or state ID number.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said Wednesday that the supporters of Initiative 362 turned in a sufficient number of voter signatures to get the question on this year’s ballot.
Under the measure, local election judges would be forced to dismiss ballots without that secondary form of identification. Voters are already required to sign their mail ballots before returning them, which is checked against a state database.
Voters would have an opportunity to “cure” their ballot by confirming their identity under Initiative 362 if they forget to add their social security or ID number, or if an election judge couldn’t read it. That’s the current protocol for signature issues or discrepancies on ballots.
Initiative 362 was filed by Chuck Broerman, a Republican and the former top elections official in El Paso County, and Suzanne Taheri, a Republican who works at a conservative Colorado law firm and previously served as Colorado’s deputy secretary of state.
The Colorado Voter Trust Initiative, a state issue committee, paid signature gatherers to get the measure on the ballot. The committee was funded by $2.2 million from the Coalition for American Prosperity and Growth, which is registered to a shipping store in Colorado Springs that offers mailboxes for rent.
It’s unclear where the Coalition for American Prosperity and Growth gets its money, making it what The Colorado Sun refers to as a dark money group.
Supporters of the measure say it will help ensure people are only filling out ballots that belong to them.
Opponents of Initiative 362 say Colorado’s existing system of signature verification on mail ballots is secure and that adding more barriers to voting would make it harder for people to participate in the process and could risk more ballots being rejected unnecessarily.
Since Initiative 362 would add language to the state constitution, it needs the support of at least 55% of voters to pass.
Initiative 362 will be among as many as 14 measures on the statewide ballot this year.