Student Voting Project | Colorado

Voting at School

ID Requirements

Everyone who votes in person, whether on Election Day or by early voting, must show ID.  A student ID from a Colorado school satisfies the ID requirement if it has your name and photograph. The following forms of ID are also accepted: Colorado driver's license; Colorado state ID card; U.S. passport; employee photo ID card issued by the U.S., Colorado, or a local government within Colorado; a pilot's license; a military ID card with photo; a certified copy of a U.S. birth certificate; a Medicare or Medicaid card; or a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that has your name and address on it.  If your ID has an address on it, that address must be in Colorado.  If you are a student at a public college or university in Colorado,you can satisfy the ID requirement by showing a letter from your school registrar that includes your name, date of birth, and residence address.  Cell phone bills, cable bills, and online printouts of bills are also accepted.  If you can't show ID, you'll have to cast aprovisional ballot, which likely won't be counted.

Additionally, if you're a first-time voter who registered by mail, and the state hasn't been able to match the number you provided when you registered (your Colorado driver's license or non-driver's ID card number or the last four digits of your Social Security number), and you didn't provide a copy of your ID when you registered, you'll have to provide a copy of your identification withyour absentee ballot.  Otherwise, your ballot will be treated as aprovisional ballot, which likely won't be counted.

Registration Requirements

You must register to vote at least 29 days before ElectionDay.Mail-in registration forms must be postmarked by this date.

When you register to vote in person in Colorado, you may be required to answer some questions related to your residency; you should be prepared to be asked whether you plan to claim your registration address as your sole legal residence and abandon all claims to other legal residences.

Residency Requirements

Under Colorado law, your residence for voting is your "principal or primary home."  In practice, Colorado students can choose to register either at home or at school, depending on which one they consider their principal home.

Your principal home is where you have a fixed place to stay, and the place where, whenever you're away, you intend to return.  The formal test for residence in Colorado is an objective test: in considering whether your school address is your proper voting residence, elections officials can look to where you're employed or have other income sources or business pursuits, the residence of your family, where your things are located, or if you own any real estate.  In Colorado, the residence address you use to vote has to be the same that you use to register your car, if you have one, or to pay state income taxes.  

Students who lived in Colorado before attending college and wish to establish or keep their voting residency at their parents' Colorado address should have no problem doing so, unless they've already registered to vote in another state.  Like all states, Colorado allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the county or state to attend school.  The only way you might lose this residency is if you "abandon" it by asserting residency in a new state. While registering tovote in another state is not automatically considered an abandonment ofresidency in Colorado, some judges or officials might view it as such.

Challenges to Residency

When you register, the clerk is obligated to deny your registration if they can't determine your residency.  After you get registered, your residency can be challenged by another voter, but only up until sixty days before an election.  A hearing will be held in front of the county clerk, and the person challenging you must prove you're not eligible; you can also appeal the clerk's decision to court within three days.

At the polls, your residency can be challenged by pollworkers, other voters, or partisan poll watchers. You'll then have to take an oath and answer some questions.  If you answer the questions and sign the oath, you'll be able to vote normally.   If you don't take the oath, you'll have to vote with a provisional ballot.  The ballot will be counted if the local elections official determines that you're an eligible voter.

Absentee Requirement

Any voter can vote absentee by mail in Colorado. Applications for mail-in ballots have to be received by your local elections officials at least seven days before the election if you want to have the ballot mailed back to you. Blank applications are available on the web site of the Secretary of State. Your local election officials have to receive your completed absentee ballot by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day. As described in the ID section above, first-time voters who register by mail whose identity isn't verified already have to submit a copy of their ID with their absentee ballot.  Neither your application nor your ballot has to be notarized or witnessed.

Voting at Home

ID Requirements

Everyone who votes in person, whether on Election Day or by early voting, must show ID.  A student ID from a Colorado school satisfies the ID requirement if it has your name and photograph. The following forms of ID are also accepted: Colorado driver's license; Colorado state ID card; U.S. passport; employee photo ID card issued by the U.S., Colorado, or a local government within Colorado; a pilot's license; a military ID card with photo; a certified copy of a U.S. birth certificate; a Medicare or Medicaid card; or a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that has your name and address on it.  If your ID has an address on it, that address must be in Colorado.  If you are a student at a public college or university in Colorado,you can satisfy the ID requirement by showing a letter from your school registrar that includes your name, date of birth, and residence address.  Cell phone bills, cable bills, and online printouts of bills are also accepted.  If you can't show ID, you'll have to cast aprovisional ballot, which likely won't be counted.

Additionally, if you're a first-time voter who registered by mail, and the state hasn't been able to match the number you provided when you registered (your Colorado driver's license or non-driver's ID card number or the last four digits of your Social Security number), and you didn't provide a copy of your ID when you registered, you'll have to provide a copy of your identification withyour absentee ballot.  Otherwise, your ballot will be treated as aprovisional ballot, which likely won't be counted.

Registration Requirements

You must register to vote at least 29 days before ElectionDay.Mail-in registration forms must be postmarked by this date.

When you register to vote in person in Colorado, you may be required to answer some questions related to your residency; you should be prepared to be asked whether you plan to claim your registration address as your sole legal residence and abandon all claims to other legal residences.

Residency Requirements

Under Colorado law, your residence for voting is your "principal or primary home."  In practice, Colorado students can choose to register either at home or at school, depending on which one they consider their principal home.

Your principal home is where you have a fixed place to stay, and the place where, whenever you're away, you intend to return.  The formal test for residence in Colorado is an objective test: in considering whether your school address is your proper voting residence, elections officials can look to where you're employed or have other income sources or business pursuits, the residence of your family, where your things are located, or if you own any real estate.  In Colorado, the residence address you use to vote has to be the same that you use to register your car, if you have one, or to pay state income taxes.  

Students who lived in Colorado before attending college and wish to establish or keep their voting residency at their parents' Colorado address should have no problem doing so, unless they've already registered to vote in another state.  Like all states, Colorado allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the county or state to attend school.  The only way you might lose this residency is if you "abandon" it by asserting residency in a new state. While registering tovote in another state is not automatically considered an abandonment ofresidency in Colorado, some judges or officials might view it as such.

Challenges to Residency

When you register, the clerk is obligated to deny your registration if they can't determine your residency.  After you get registered, your residency can be challenged by another voter, but only up until sixty days before an election.  A hearing will be held in front of the county clerk, and the person challenging you must prove you're not eligible; you can also appeal the clerk's decision to court within three days.

At the polls, your residency can be challenged by pollworkers, other voters, or partisan poll watchers. You'll then have to take an oath and answer some questions.  If you answer the questions and sign the oath, you'll be able to vote normally.   If you don't take the oath, you'll have to vote with a provisional ballot.  The ballot will be counted if the local elections official determines that you're an eligible voter.

Absentee Requirement

Any voter can vote absentee by mail in Colorado. Applicationsfor mail-in ballots have to be received by your local elections officials atleast seven days before the election if you want to have the ballot mailed backto you.  Blank applications are available on the website of the Secretary of State.  Yourlocal election officials have to receive your completed absentee ballot by 7:00p.m. on Election Day. Asdescribed in the ID section above, first-time voters who register by mail whoseidentity isn't verified already have to submit a copy of their ID with theirabsentee ballot.  Neither your application nor your ballot hasto be notarized or witnessed.

[1] Colorado Secretary of State, Election FAQs, http://www.elections.colorado.gov/DDefault.aspx?tid=549 (last visited Apr. 9, 2008); Interview with Angela Lawson, Lobbyist and NVRA Coordinator, Office of the Colorado Secretary of State (June 12, 2008).  Residency for voting has traditionally been equated with domicile under state law.  See e.g., Sharp v. McIntire, 46 P. 115 (Colo. 1896) (equating "residence" for voting with domicile as used in the state constitution).

[2] Gordon v. Blackburn, 618 P.2d 668, 671 (Colo. 1980)

[3] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-2-102 (West 2008).

[4] Id.

[5] Colo. Const. art VII, § 4; Colo. Rev. Stat. § 1-2-103(1) (West 2008).

[6] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann § 1-2-204

[7] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-9-101 (West 2008).

[8] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-9-201 (West 2008).

[9] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-9-203; 1-9-204 (2), (West 2008).

[10] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann § 1-9-201 (West 2008).

[11] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann §1-8.5-105

[12] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-2-201(3) (West 2008).

[13] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-2-508(1)(b) (West 2008).

[14] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann § 1-2-204

[15] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-7-110 (West 2008); 8 CCR 1505-1(30.1.6).

[16] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-1-104(19.5) (West 2008).

[17] Id.

[18] Colorado Secretary of State, Election FAQs, http://www.elections.colorado.gov/DDefault.aspx?tid=549 (last visited Apr. 9, 2008).

[19] Interview with Angela Lawson, Lobbyist and NVRA Coordinator, Office of the Colorado Secretary of State (June 12, 2008); 8 CCR 1505-1 (30.1.6)

[20] 8 CCR 1505-1 (26.5.2)

[21] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-8-113(3)(b) (West 2008).

[22] Id. at (1)(d)

[23] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-8-102 (West 2008).

[24] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-8-104 (3) (West 2008).

[25] Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1-8-113 (1)(a) (West 2008).