Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ryan Frazier’s name will appear on primary ballots, but votes for the former Aurora city councilman might not be counted, according to a court order issued Thursday afternoon.

In the latest wrinkle in a process fraught with reversals, a Denver District Court judge said Frazier will join four other Republicans on the June 28 primary ballot pending his appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, although he will have to withdraw from the race if he loses that appeal.

Judge Elizabeth Starr also lifted a stay she had earlier imposed on the state’s top election official, allowing Secretary of State Wayne Williams to permit county clerks to send ballots to printers so they can get them in the mail to military and overseas voters by Friday’s deadline.

El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, Fort Collins businessman Jack Graham, former state Rep. Jon Keyser, R-Morrison, and Colorado Springs businessman Robert Blaha had earlier qualified for the primary — Blaha just hours earlier, when Starr clarified a decision that admitted hundreds of petition signatures previoiusly ruled invalid by Williams.

Frazier is appealing another ruling by the same judge that determined the signatures he submitted to gain ballot access still fell short of requirements — state law requires 1,500 valid signatures from each of Colorado’s seven congressional districts — even after she allowed dozens to be counted.

“The reason we’re challenging the ruling is because the system is broken, the petition process is stuck in the last century,” Frazier told The Colorado Statesman in a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “I’m fighting to fix this whole system. It’s not just a bout me, it’s about everyday Coloradans having their voices heard.”

Frazier is challenging the constitutionality of two requirements that are part of the petition process for candidates: one that only registered Colorado voters affiliated with the same party as a candidate may circulate petitions and another that allows a voter’s signature to count on the petition of a single candidate for the same office.

His attorneys — led by former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, who held the office immediately prior to Williams — argue in court filings that both requirements violate the First and 14th Amendment rights of both voters and candidates

“There were hundreds, if not thousands of valid Republican signatures thrown out,” Frazier said. “We’re fighting because, once we’re on the ballot, we will have ensured that all the voters and our supporters who have signed the petitions will have had their voice heard. That is what I believe to be the most important.”

Frazier added that he is confident in his appeal but “will absolutely comply with the judge’s orders” to withdraw from the primary if he doesn’t prevail. (An election law attorney noted that the unusual order was necessary to keep clerks from counting Frazier’s votes if he doesn’t wind up qualifying for the ballot because clerks would otherwise be required to count his votes.)

A day earlier, Blaha called on Williams to resign, charging his fellow Republican with “gross mishandling of the petition process” and calling the election official “incompetent.”

Frazier, however, declined to pile on the secretary of state, saying Williams was merely “saddled with a broken system and a process that is stuck in the last century.”

“I’m not about trying to call someone out and tell them they’re doing a bad job if they’re not,” Frazier said. “Wayne Williams is doing a fine job. I don’t place any blame at the feet of Wayne Williams or, for that matter, the courts. They’re simply stuck with a broken process and outdated laws and simply did not have the time to review and verify all the issues. It rests with us to fight to make sure each valid voter who signed our petition is counted.”

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com