1437 Bannock St . Denver , Colorado 80202 - Brennan Center for ...

Section 1-7.5-107(3)(a)(I) discusses the process by which mail ballots will be sent toregistered electors. It provides:Not sooner than twenty-two days before an election, and no laterthan eighteen days before an election, except as provided insubparagraph (II) of this paragraph (a), the designated electionofficial shall mail to each active registered elector, at the lastmailing address appearing in the registration records, and inaccordance with United States postal service regulations, a mailballot packet…(Emphasis added.) An active voter is a person who voted in the last general election, § 1-2-605(2). Conversely, a person is deemed “inactive-failed to vote” if the person has not voted in ageneral election. Id.The adjective “active” is crucial. If the General Assembly intended to allow electionofficials to send packets to all registered electors, including those marked as “inactive”, it wouldnot have used the word “active.” Instead, it would have required election officials to mail packetsto “each registered elector.” Alternatively, the General Assembly could have included areference to “inactive-failed to vote” electors, as it did for primary election mail ballot elections.Section 1-7.5-107(3)(a)(II), C.R.S. (2011). By using the word “active”, it intended to exclude“inactive” voters. “Straining the statute to read otherwise would ignore its plain language”, In reMarriage of Chalat, 112 P.3d 47, 57 (Colo. 2005) and expands the definition of the word“active” well beyond its generally accepted meaning.The interpretation proffered by Clerk Johnson renders superfluous other sections of thestatute. Section 1-7.5-107(3)(c) states that designated election officials must make mail ballotsavailable “at the designated election official’s office, or the office designated in the mail ballotplan filed with the secretary of state, for eligible electors who are not listed or who are listed as‘Inactive’ on the county voter registration records.” The county clerk and recorder must mail a22