Colorado Personhood Amendment Falls Short Of Required Signatures To Make Ballot

An amendment submitted by the Colorado Personhood Coalition fell short of the required number of signatures to make the November ballot by 3,859 according to the Colorado Secretary of State's office.

Initiative 46 would have sought to amend the state Constitution to ban all abortion -- including for victims of rape and incest -- some fertility treatments and ban stem-cell research.

“Coloradans know that politicians and the government should not be involved in a woman’s personal decisions about her pregnancy," said Vicki Cowart, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in a statement on behalf of the NO Personhood Campaign. "The proposed amendment was dangerous, and would lead to more intrusion into our personal lives, such as allowing the government to get into our medical records to investigate miscarriages, dictate the kinds of birth control we use, and interfere in a family’s personal decisions about fertility treatments."

In the past, two similar personhood amendements have made it onto the state ballot and lost by 3-1 margins. This year however, measure failed to even make it onto the ballot.

In Oklahoma last April, a similar personhood measure was unanimously vetoed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Last year in Mississippi, another personhood amendment was rejected by more than 55 percent of voters.

“We know the proponents will be back again—they’ve promised as much. We encourage Coloradans to continue to vote for those values this November and in the future,” said Jeremy Shaver, Executive Director of The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado.

Though proponents of the initiative submitted over 100,000 signatures, about 26,000 more than the required amount to make it onto the ballot, a line-by-line analysis of the petitions conducted by the Secretary of State's office found that it fell short of the required amount of valid signatures.

The Personhood campaign has been given 30 days to challenge the results.

Personhood Colorado spokeswoman Jennifer Mason told the Denver Post that the campaign has hired an election attorney and is "certain" they will still make it onto this year's ballot.

Polling conducted by Project New America earlier this month found the personhood measure to be most opposed among unaffiliated voters, who would say that if the amendment had made the ballot 65 percent would have rejected it. Among likely voters, 60 percent said they would vote against the measure.