Colorado Code
Part 12 - Presidential Primary Elections
§ 1-4-1203. Presidential Primary Elections - When - Conduct

(1) A presidential primary election shall be held on a Tuesday on a date designated by the governor. The date selected for the primary must be no earlier than the date the national rules of the major political parties provide for state delegations to the party's national convention to be allocated without penalty and not later than the third Tuesday in March in years in which a United States Presidential Election will be held. The governor shall, in consultation with the secretary of state, designate the date of the presidential primary election no later than the first day of September in the year before the presidential primary election will be held.
(2) (a) Except as provided for in subsection (5) of this section, each political party that has a qualified candidate entitled to participate in the presidential primary election pursuant to this section is entitled to participate in the Colorado presidential primary election. At the presidential primary election, an elector that is affiliated with a political party may vote only for a candidate of that political party.
(b) An unaffiliated eligible elector may vote in a political party's presidential primary election without affiliating with that party or may declare an affiliation with a political party to the election judges at the presidential primary election in accordance with section 1-7-201. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no elector affiliated with a major or minor political party or political organization may change or withdraw his or her affiliation in order to vote in the presidential primary election of another political party unless the elector has changed or withdrawn such affiliation no later than the twenty-second day preceding the presidential primary election as provided in section 1-2-219 (1).
(3) Except as otherwise provided in this part 12, a presidential primary election must be conducted in the same manner as any other primary election to the extent statutory provisions governing other primary elections are applicable to this part 12. The election officers and county clerk and recorders have the same powers and shall perform the same duties for presidential primary elections as they provide by law for other primary elections and general elections.
(4) (a) A ballot used in a presidential primary election must only contain the names of candidates for the office of the president of the United States of America. The ballot shall not be used for the purpose of presenting any other issue or question to the electorate unless expressly authorized by law.
(b) Each political party that is entitled to participate in the presidential primary election shall have a separate party ballot for use by electors affiliated with that political party.
(c) The county clerk and recorder shall send to all active electors in the county who have not declared an affiliation or provided a ballot preference with a political party a ballot packet that contains the ballots of all the major political parties. In this ballot packet, the clerk shall also provide written instructions advising the elector of the manner in which the elector will be in compliance with the requirements of this code in selecting and casting the ballot of a major political party. An elector may cast the ballot of only one major political party. After selecting and casting a ballot of a single major political party, the elector shall return the ballot to the clerk. If an elector casts and returns to the clerk the ballot of more than one major political party, all such ballots returned will be rejected and will not be counted.
(d) The secretary of state may by rule adopt additional ballot requirements necessary to avoid voter confusion in voting in presidential primary elections.
(5) If, at the close of business on the sixtieth day before a presidential primary election, every political party has no more than one candidate for president affiliated with the political party who is certified to the presidential primary ballot pursuant to section 1-4-1204 (1) or who has filed a write-in candidate statement of intent pursuant to section 1-4-1205, the secretary of state may cancel the presidential primary election for all political parties and declare the candidate for each political party the winner of the presidential primary election for that political party.
(6) The secretary of state may by rule adopt additional ballot requirements necessary to avoid voter confusion in voting in presidential primary elections.
(7) Repealed.
Source: Initiated 2016: Entire part RC&RE, Proposition 107, effective upon proclamation of the Governor, December 27, 2016. See L. 2017, p. 2816 . L. 2017: (1) and (4)(b) amended, (4)(c) and (4)(d) added, and (7) repealed, (SB 17-305), ch. 216, p. 842, § 3, effective August 9. L. 2021: (2)(b) and (5) amended, (SB 21-250), ch. 282, p. 1643, § 25, effective June 21.
Editor's note: Section 85 of chapter 282 (SB 21-250), Session Laws of Colorado 2021, provides that the act changing this section applies to elections conducted on or after June 21, 2021.

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