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Colorado > Colorado Electoral Code > Qualifications And Registration Of Electors

1-2-219. Changing or withdrawing declaration of affiliation

Overview of Statute

Registrants may change party affiliation by submitting either a signed request, provided by election officials, or personal letter to the county clerk and recorder at least twenty-nine days prior to an election. The form or letter must include the registrant’s printed name, address within the county, birth date, social security number (per the registrant’s discretion), signature, the date, previous affiliation status, and the requested change in affiliation.

Registrants may only vote in primary elections for the party they are currently affilated with. Only registrants can make changes to his or her own party affiliation. Registrants unable to write may either request assistance from the county clerk and recorder, or submit a personal letter attested by a notary public.

Statute

(1)  Any eligible elector desiring to change or withdraw the elector’s affiliation may do so by completing and signing a prescribed request for the change or withdrawal and filing it with the county clerk and recorder or by submitting a personal letter written by the elector to the county clerk and recorder at any time up to and including the twenty-ninth day preceding a primary election; except that, if the twenty-ninth day before the primary election is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the change or withdrawal applies if made by the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday. The prescribed form or personal letter for the change must include the elector’s printed name, address within the county, birth date, social security number, if the elector wishes to state it, and signature, the date, the elector’s previous affiliation status, and the requested change in affiliation status. A prescribed form must be furnished by the county clerk and recorder upon the elector’s oral or written request. Upon receiving the request, the county clerk and recorder shall change the elector’s affiliation on his or her registration record. If the affiliation is withdrawn, the designation on the elector’s registration record must be changed to “unaffiliated”. If an elector changes affiliation, the elector is entitled to vote, at any primary election, only the ballot of the political party to which the elector is currently affiliated. A change or withdrawal of affiliation may not be made by anyone other than the elector. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a declaration or change of affiliation made by an unaffiliated elector in accordance with this section must be deferred if the elector has already been mailed a primary election ballot packet. The deadline by which the elector must declare, change, or withdraw an affiliation as specified in this subsection (1) only applies to a primary election and does not apply to a general or coordinated election.

(2) Any declaration, change, or withdrawal of affiliation made on the same form or personal letter as an address or name change shall be accepted by the county clerk and recorder if the form or personal letter is dated and signed so that it is clearly indicated that the elector intended to make the change or withdrawal indicated on the form or in the personal letter. An elector who is unable to write may request assistance from the county clerk and recorder, and the county clerk and recorder shall sign the form, witnessing the elector’s mark or, on a personal letter, the elector shall have his or her signature attested to by a notary public.

Source: L. 92: Entire article R&RE, p. 652, § 2, effective January 1, 1993. L. 93: Entire  section amended, p. 1401, § 21, effective July 1. L. 99: (1) amended, p. 158, § 4, effective August 4.L. 2003: (1) amended, p. 1309, § 3, effective April 22. L. 2016: (1) amended, (SB 16-142), ch.
173, p. 571, § 15, effective May 18: (1) amended, (SB 18-233), ch. 262, p. 1605, § 6, effective May 29.

Editor’s note: This section is similar to former § 1-2-217 as it existed prior to 1992.

Definition [Political party]

Any group of registered electors who, by petition or assembly, nominate candidates for the official general election ballot. “Political party” includes affiliated party organizations at the state, county, and election district levels, and all such affiliates are considered to be a single entity for the purposes of this article, except as otherwise provided in section 7. Section 2(13) of article XXVIII of the state constitution.

Definition [State]

A state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. C.R.S. § 1-8.3-102.

Definition [Ballot]

(a) A federal write-in absentee ballot;

(b) A ballot specifically prepared or distributed for use by a covered voter in accordance with this article; or

(c) A ballot cast by a covered voter in accordance with this article.

(2) “Covered voter” means:

(a) A uniformed-service voter defined in paragraph (a) of subsection (9) of this section who is a resident of this state but who is absent from this state by reason of active duty and who otherwise satisfies this state’s voter eligibility requirements;

(b) An overseas voter who, before leaving the United States, was last eligible to vote in this state and, except for a state residency requirement, otherwise satisfies this state’s voter eligibility requirements;

(c) An overseas voter who, before leaving the United States, would have been last eligible to vote in this state had the voter then been of voting age and, except for a state residency requirement, otherwise satisfies this state’s voter eligibility requirements; or

(d) An overseas voter who was born outside the United States, is not described in paragraph (b) or (c) of this subsection (2), and, except for a state residency requirement, otherwise satisfies this state’s voter eligibility requirements if the last place where a parent, legal guardian, spouse, or civil union partner of the voter was, or under this article would have been, eligible to vote before leaving the United States is within this state.

C.R.S. § 1-8.3-102.

Definition [Person]

Any natural person, partnership, committee, association, corporation, labor organization, political party, or other organization or group of persons. Section 2(11) of article XXVIII of the state constitution.

Definition [Section]

A bound compilation of initiative forms approved by the secretary of state, which shall include pages that contain the warning required by section 1-40-110 (1), the ballot title, the abstract required by section 1-40-110 (3), and a copy of the proposed measure; succeeding pages that contain the warning, the ballot title, and ruled lines numbered consecutively for registered electors’ signatures; and a final page that contains the affidavit required by section 1-40-111 (2). Each section shall be consecutively prenumbered by the petitioner prior to circulation.

Definition [Election]

Any election under the “Uniform Election Code of 1992” or the “Colorado Municipal Election Code of 1965”, article 10 of title 31, C.R.S. C.R.S. § 1-7.5-103.

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