Freedom of elections

• Currency: Current through 11/8/2022 Election

All elections shall be free and open; and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.

Cite as Colo. Const. art. II § 5

Source:

Entire article added, effective August 1, 1876, see L. 1877, p. 29.

ANNOTATION

This section means that every qualified elector shall have an equal right to cast a ballot for the person of his own selection, and that no act shall be done by any power, civil or military, to prevent it. Such is the mandate and spirit of the constitution, and it thereby vests in the elector a constitutional right of which he cannot lawfully be deprived by any governmental power. Littlejohn v. People, 52 Colo. 217, 121 P. 159 (1912).

Right to vote deemed fundamental right. The right to vote is at the core of our constitutional system and is a fundamental right of every citizen. Jarmel v. Putnam, 179 Colo. 215, 499 P.2d 603 (1972).

Right to vote is a fundamental right of the first order guaranteed by the federal constitution and this section of the Colorado Constitution. Meyer v. Lamm, 846 P.2d 862 (Colo. 1993).

And there must be no discrimination between citizens with respect to that right, even as to a recent arrival, except for a compelling state interest which cannot be reasonably protected in any other way. Jarmel v. Putnam, 179 Colo. 215, 499 P.2d 603 (1972).

A state's regulatory interests will generally justify reasonable, nondiscriminatory restrictions on the rights of voters. Bruce v. City of Colo. Springs, 971 P.2d 679 (Colo. App. 1998).

General assembly may reasonably restrict, but cannot deny, right to vote. While it cannot be questioned that the general assembly has the power to prescribe reasonable restrictions under which the right to vote may be exercised, nevertheless, such restrictions must be in the nature of regulations and cannot extend to the denial of the franchise itself. Littlejohn v. People, 52 Colo. 217, 121 P. 159 (1912).

Nor unnecessarily impede free exercise. The general assembly has no constitutional power to restrain or abridge the right, or unnecessarily to impede its free exercise. Under the pretense of regulation the right of suffrage must be left untrammeled by any provisions or even rules of evidence that may injuriously or necessarily impair it, and so the citizen cannot forfeit the right except by his own neglect or by such peculiar accidents as are not attributable to the law itself. Littlejohn v. People, 52 Colo. 217, 121 P. 159 (1912).