Initiative 25 deemed insufficient

Final ballot initiative fails to reach required number of valid signatures

Denver, March 3, 2010 – Today Secretary of State Bernie Buescher announced that the proposed ballot measure concerning “Definition of Person” was found to be insufficient as required by statute. Petitions were submitted to the Secretary of State’s office on February 12.

Secretary of State staff immediately began verifying a random sample of the signatures. This five-percent sample is selected by computer. The results are as follows:

Random Sample Summary:

• Total number of qualified signatures submitted: 79,648
• 5% of qualified signatures submitted (random sample): 4,000
• Total number of entries accepted (valid) from random sample: 3,031
• Total number of entries rejected (invalid) from random sample: 969
• Number of projected valid signatures from random sample: 60,357
• Total number of accepted entries necessary for placement on ballot: 76,047
• Percentage of presumed valid signatures: 79.37%

After review of the submitted petition sections as provided in section 1-40-116, C.R.S., Buescher declared that an insufficient number of valid signatures have been submitted.

The Secretary of State’s office has notified the proponents the petition failed to qualify for the 2010 ballot and those proponents will have another 15 days to collect additional signatures to cure the deficiency. The proponents will have until 3:00pm Thursday, March 18 to submit additional signatures.