Boulder bungled determining petitioning deadlines for ballot proposals

Campaigns plan to persist with hope Council complies with advice

By Sam Lounsberry. Originally published in the Daily Camera on July 20, 2020.

"Boulder officials bungled determining this year’s petitioning deadlines for resident-proposed ballot measures, it was announced Friday, leading to a complete deflation of the legal weight normally carried by the voter signatures activists are still working to gather as a frightening pandemic makes contact with others potentially deadly.

During a summertime campaigning season in a crucial presidential election year, the issue of direct democracy has dominated headlines in Boulder, where officials debated and ultimately declined instituting a workaround involving electronic signatures for petition leaders seeking to put measures on the November ballot.

Leaders of the petitions highly criticized City Council for deciding to not allow electronic signatures during the coronavirus outbreak. Now, a new hurdle has emerged for the two campaigns that remain at work to collect the more than 4,000 Boulder voter endorsements each needs to make this year’s ballot: The deadline has already passed."

Read the full story in the Daily Camera.