Colorado Supreme Court rules GOP lawmaker should be kept off ballot

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday afternoon that GOP incumbent Rep. Doug Lamborn can’t appear on the ballot in the 2018 Republican primary.

The court said Ryan Tipple, one of the petitioners Lamborn hired to collect the the required signatures to qualify, was not a bona fide resident of Colorado, which is required by election law, making the signatures invalid. 

“We recognize the gravity of this conclusion, but Colorado law does not permit us to conclude otherwise,” the court said in the ruling.

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A group of Republicans in Lamborn’s district filed the lawsuit, questioning whether people Lamborn had hired lived in the state, and therefore the validity of the signatures.

The plaintiffs argued that the petition circulators, while registered Colorado voters, only had residence in the state for the purpose of working for Lamborn.

A lower court sided with Lamborn earlier this month, but the plaintiffs appealed, sending the case to the state Supreme Court.

“In applying the correct test to the essentially undisputed facts here, we conclude that Tipple was not a resident of Colorado when he served as a circulator for the Lamborn Campaign,” the court said in its opinion.

“Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s ruling to the contrary.”