Blaha, Frazier try to sue their way into Colorado Senate primary
DENVER – The drama continues as U.S. Senate candidates battle to get on next month’s Republican primary ballot.
The field was once more than a dozen candidates and has been winnowed down to three – Darryl Glenn, Jon Keyser and Jack Graham. But legal challenges could change that, despite the Secretary of State’s Office being past the deadline to set the official ballot.
Two candidates filed official legal challenges Monday to the decision that they failed to turn in enough valid signatures to be on the primary ballot.
Those legal challenges follow a judge’s ruling last week that Jon Keyser could appear on the ballot because the Secretary of State invalidated signatures that should have been counted.
But even that ruling may be challenged. The liberal policy advocacy group ProgressNow is holding a press event Tuesday afternoon to unveil “additional invalid petition signatures for U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser that were apparently missed by the Secretary of State.” Fewer than 20 invalid signatures could keep Keyser off the ballot, a ProgressNow press release states.
In Colorado there are two ways onto the ballot – by winning at least 30 percent of the delegate votes at the state assembly, or by gathering 10,500 signatures from at least 1,500 party-registered voters in each of Colorado’s seven congressional districts.
Only Glenn made the ballot at the state assembly.
Four candidates tried to petition on, with Graham and Keyser on the ballot.
Colorado Springs Businessman Robert Blaha and former Aurora City Council member Ryan Frazier both filed lawsuits Monday to challenge the Secretary of State’s ruling.
Blaha fell short of required 1,500 signatures in three congressional districts: 149 signatures short in District 1, 169 signatures in District 3 and 49 signatures in District 6.
His petition in Denver District Court notes that some signatures were thrown out because the petition gatherer was wrongly deemed not a registered Republican. Keyser got on the ballot with a similar legal challenge.
But Blaha would need some signatures to also be deemed valid for other reasons. His lawsuit says “the Secretary rejected numerous petitions on account of minor stray marks or handwriting artifacts on circulators’ signature dates.”
Fraizer has an even tougher battle, needing 52 signatures in District 1, six signatures in District 2, 306 signatures in District 3 and 44 signatures in District 6.
His legal challenges are far more complicated, too. Frazier challenged the very premise that a signature can only be used on one candidate’s petition and it’s first-come, first-serve.
Colorado Springs businessman Robert Blaha
Jon Keyser will be on the ballot for U.S. Senate, according to a Denver District Court Judge who ruled Friday that Keyser turned in enough valid signatures to compete in the June Republican primary.
Colorado State Capitol Building