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Colorado > Colorado Electoral Code > Qualifications And Registration Of Electors

1-2-227. Custody and preservation of records

Overview of Statute

The county clerk and recorder is responsible for maintaining registration books. For the duration of any general election cycle, the clerk must preserve as public record all records of oaths or affirmations, applications for affidavit registration, federal postcard applications, applications for change of residence or name, and other related records. Accordingly, voters must have access to view and make copies of these records.

The county clerk and recorder must also protect the confidentiality of all information related to preregistration for individuals under eighteen, without requiring a corresponding request, application, or fee for maintaining the confidentiality.

The obligations of confidentiality will no longer apply if the preregistrant turns eighteen prior to the date of the next election.

Statute

(1) Registration books shall be left in the custody of the county clerk and recorder, who shall be responsible for them. The oaths or affirmations, applications for affidavit registration, federal postcard applications, applications for change of residence or change of name, and other papers provided for by this part 2 shall be preserved by the county clerk and recorder and shall not be destroyed until after the next general election. They shall be public records subject to examination by any elector, and the elector shall have the right to make copies of the records during office hours.

(2) The voter information provided by a preregistrant who will not turn eighteen years of age by the date of the next election shall be kept confidential in the same manner as, and using the programs developed for, information that is kept confidential pursuant to section 24-72-204 (3.5). Nothing in this subsection (2) shall be construed to require any request, application, or fee for such confidentiality. When the preregistrant will be eighteen years of age on the date of the next election, or on January 1 of the year in which the preregistrant will be eligible to vote in any primary election under section 1-2-101 (2)(c), such information is no longer confidential under this subsection (2).

Source: L. 92: Entire article R&RE, p. 661, § 2, effective January 1, 1993. L. 2013: Entire sectionamended, (HB 13-1135), ch. 184, p. 679, § 8, effective August 7. L. 2016: (1) amended, (SB 16-142), ch. 173, p. 572, § 18, effective May 18.L. 2019: (2) amended, (HB 19-1278), ch. 326, p. 3007, § 8, effective August 2.

Editor’s note: This section is similar to former § 1-2-224 as it existed prior to 1992.
 
ANNOTATION

Law reviews. For note, “Purged Voter Lists”, see 44 Den. L.J. 279 (1967).

Definition [Federal postcard application]

The application prescribed under section 101(b)(2) of the federal “Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act”, 42 U.S.C. sec. 1973ff(b)(2).1. C.R.S. § 1-8.3-102.

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.

Regulations & Guidance