Summary
The Colorado Supreme Court held that a pre-election proceeding under section 1-1-118(1), C.R.S., could not be used to challenge an election official’s certification of a candidate based solely on the candidate’s qualifications after the statutory period for directly challenging those qualifications had expired. The court treated the candidate-qualification challenge procedure in section 1-4-501(8) as the specific provision controlling over the more general election-code remedy. The court affirmed the district court’s denial of relief and declined to prevent votes for the candidate from being counted.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Colorado Revised Statutes section 1-1-118(1) permits an elector to challenge an election official's certification of a candidate to the ballot solely on the ground that the candidate is not qualified after the specific statutory period for directly challenging the candidate's qualifications has expired.
- Whether petitioners could obtain an order preventing the counting of votes for the allegedly unqualified candidate before the election.
Holdings
- Section 1-1-118(1) does not permit an elector to challenge an election official's certification of a candidate to the ballot solely because the candidate is allegedly unqualified once the five-day period in section 1-4-501(8) for directly challenging the candidate's qualifications has expired.
- Once an allegedly ineligible candidate has been certified to the ballot without a timely challenge and the election is underway, the election process must proceed; the statutory scheme provides a post-election mechanism to challenge the winning candidate's eligibility rather than permitting late disruption of the election.
Key quotations
“Because section 1-1-118(1), C.R.S. (2015), does not permit a challenge to an election official's certification of a candidate to the ballot, solely on the basis of the certified candidate's qualification, once the period permitted by section 1-4-501(8), C.R.S. (2015), for challenging the qualification of the candidate directly has expired, the ruling of the district court is affirmed.” (1142)
Factual background
Paul Pitton was certified as a candidate for a school board director seat in Mesa County Valley School District 51, which required candidates to reside within the director district they sought to represent. After the ballot certification period had passed and one week before the election, petitioners alleged that Pitton lived outside District B and that the designated election official had wrongfully certified him. They sought to remove Pitton from the ballot and prevent the counting of votes cast for him.
Procedural history
One week before a school board election, petitioners filed a verified district court petition challenging the certification of a candidate whom they alleged was not qualified to represent the director district and seeking to prevent votes for him from being counted. The district court denied relief, concluding that section 1-1-118(1) did not authorize adjudication of the candidate's eligibility at that stage. Petitioners promptly sought review in the Colorado Supreme Court, which affirmed.