It was another victory for progressives in Colorado today as upset Republicans who were trying desperately to recall Governor Jared Polis ended up gathering fewer than half the signatures they needed to put the recall measure on the ballot. The recall faction failed so miserably in fact that they didn’t even bother to turn in the signatures they did get.
Local Republican proponents of the effort were spotted using illegal techniques to gather signatures, like setting up tables in public parks without obtaining the required permits and taping signs advertising their petition effort on government buildings.
In the end, the “Dismiss Polis” people gathered only 300,000 of the 630,000 signatures they needed to qualify for the ballot.
Governor Polis responded to the news by saying “After all that fuss, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t turn in a single signature on the recall. I hope the remaining misguided efforts against others see the same results … Recalls should not be used for partisan gamesmanship.”
Nobody can verify the number of signatures–they said they had 300,000. The average number of bad signatures on a petition drive is 30%.