HB 16-1454 Summary

• Restores Colorado's presidential primary election, held on a Tuesday between the earliest date allowed by national party rules and the third Tuesday in March in presidential election years; the governor must designate the date by September 1 of the preceding year.

• Establishes the "temporary affiliated elector" status allowing unaffiliated voters to temporarily affiliate with a political party to vote in primary elections, with the temporary affiliation period lasting 45 days before through 30 days after the primary election.

• Requires each major political party with qualified candidates to have a separate ballot in the presidential primary; candidates must submit petitions signed by at least 1,500 eligible electors in each congressional district no later than 85 days before the election.

• Specifies that political parties must use presidential primary results to allocate delegate votes to candidates, with parties not required to allocate votes to candidates receiving less than 15 percent of votes cast unless required by party rules.

• Appropriates $121,306 from the department of state cash fund for implementation costs and requires the state to reimburse counties for all actual direct costs of conducting the presidential primary election.