It’s looking more and more as though the November ballot in Colorado will contain a voter initiative to ban elective abortions after 22 weeks gestation, except where the life of the mother is in jeopardy.
Due Date Too Late, the initiative’s organizers, announced on Thursday that it would be delivering over 30,000 petition signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State on May 29 in order to submit the 10,000 additional signatures needed to meet the state’s requirement. The final signature tally, as the initiative’s organizers indicated on Facebook on Friday, was 48,329.
Initiative 120, as the measure is known, has been in the works for a while. On March 4, the original deadline for submitting petitions, organizers turned in 137,624 signatures. 124,632 valid signatures of registered voters are required in order to qualify for the ballot.
However, after the Secretary of State audited the petitions, it ruled that only 114,647 signatures were valid, leaving the effort nearly 10,000 signatures short.
Under Colorado law, Initiative 120 was then given a two-week “cure period” – from May 15-29 – to collect enough valid signatures to bring the total up to the necessary number.
Due Date Too Late then organized dates, times and locations around the state where people could come and sign the petitions during the cure period. This was no easy feat given that Colorado was under a general “stay-at-home” order due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But Colorado’s pro-life community was not to be deterred. Focus on the Family helped get the word out by sending emails to its Colorado friends alerting them to the need and providing information as to where people could go to sign petitions.
Lauren Castillo, spokesperson for the Due Date Too Late campaign, said, “We are thrilled to take this next step towards protecting lives in Colorado by exceeding our goal of signatures we are turning in to the Secretary of State. We are thankful to have this opportunity to work together with communities across the entire state of Colorado. The hundreds of volunteers we have who are so passionate about ending late-term abortion are helping to make this a reality.”
This was truly a non-partisan effort. “Together, 7% Democrat and 26% Unaffiliated voters accounted for at least 33% of total cure period signatures,” organizers said.
The next step in the process is for the Colorado Secretary of State to verify and certify that enough valid signatures have been obtained. Based on the large numbers of signatures obtained during the cure period, it seems almost a certainty that the Colorado voters will be able to cast a vote on the initiative in November.
Photo from Due Date Too Late
