June 03, 2013 02:39 PM UTC

Morse Paid Petition Recall Campaign Turns In 16,000+ Signatures

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

FOX 31's Eli Stokols reports, as expected, the paid recall petition drive against Colorado Senate President John Morse in retaliation for gun safety bills passed this year in the Colorado General Assembly appears successful:

The group working to recall Colorado Senate President John Morse over the passage of Democratic gun control legislation earlier this year turned in more than 16,000 signatures at the Secretary of State’s office Monday morning.

That’s more than double the number of valid signatures — 7,178, a percentage of voter turnout in 2010 when Morse was elected — that will be needed to force a recall election in El Paso County later this year…

[T]he push to oust Morse has drawn most of the attention from pro-Second Amendment activists within the state, not to mention a lot of financial help from undisclosed groups that have funneled money, through a non-profit called “I Am Created Equal”, to Kennedy Enterprises, which has paid petition gatherers to collect signatures.

16,000 signatures is enough to overcome even a very low "validity rate" for gathered signatures, which is expected as collecting signatures in a state senate district with poorly-known boundaries can be difficult. It's worth noting that for-profit petition company Kennedy Enterprises has never failed to get something on the ballot via petition drive.

Lynn Bartels of the Denver Post follows up today with more reports of deception from petition gatherers, in addition to video of similar false statements from a Morse petition gatherer that surfaced last week. There is some recourse for individuals who realize they have been deceived by a petition gatherer, allowing them to have their names removed–we'll be watching to see if anything develops with that possibility. 9NEWS:

Morse has several options available to challenge the signatures, including court action. Deadlines for the various challenges are spelled out in state law.

"Thousands of those signatures were obtained inappropriately," Morse said. "Now, will we be able to prove that? We'll have 15 days to figure that out. That's going to be tricky."

As of now, it does appear the first-ever recall of a sitting Colorado legislator is headed for the ballot.