Proponents of a $950 million initiative to revamp the state's school finance system, and raise the state income tax in the process, delivered more than 160,000 signatures Monday morning to the Secretary of State's office in an effort to put the measure on the November ballot.
Supporters unloaded dozens of boxes of petitions from a school bus and hauled them into the downtown office, where they'll be examined for the 86,105 valid signatures required to move forward.
"I think we're going to be fine," said Gail Klapper of the Colorado Forum, one of the key backers of the initiative. "We got a lot of people involved and enthusiastic, and didn't have a lot of trouble getting people to sign the petitions."
The Secretary of State's office said it could take several days to inspect a 5 percent random sample of petitions to determine the validity rate of signatures. If in that sample names and addresses match the voter file at a rate that points to collecting 110 percent of the required signatures, the office can deem the total effort sufficient.
Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
