Despite not turning in a single signature by the Nov. 13 deadline, the effort to recall Gov. Jared Polis has not gone away.

Recall organizer Lori Cutunilli posted on a restricted Facebook page devoted to the effort that organizers filed for an extension of the deadline in Denver District Court on Thursday.

“Our attorneys expect the hearing to be scheduled before the holidays,” Cutunilli wrote.

The legal basis for the extension, according to previous posts, is the inability to collect signatures due to the pandemic.

And for the first time, they’re revealing just how many of the 631,266 valid signatures they collected: less than 200,000, according to the post. In order to obtain the required number of valid signatures, recall spokesman Greg Merschel previously has said they would need to collect around one million signatures. 

Related: Another recall petition launched against Gov. Jared Polis

“Clearly the cancellation of every public event across the state due to Polis’s Covid restrictions did affect volunteers ability to gather signatures more than anticipated,” Cutunilli wrote. “The good news is due to the extraordinary efforts and determination of the approximately 1,600 volunteers who gathered signatures across the state we have a great base to launch the extension from!”

Collection of recall signatures began on Sept. 14 with a deadline of Nov. 13. According to the Secretary of State’s office, no one showed up on Nov. 13 to turn in signatures. 

Related: Second Polis recall effort falls short by more than 631,000 signatures

The grounds for the recall include:

• Abuse of emergency power by issuing disaster declarations through executive orders.
• Spending $1.6 billion in CARES Act funds without consulting the legislature.
• An executive order allowed for the collection of signatures via email, an order later overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court.
• Discrimination against houses of worship, requiring them to be closed while allowing marijuana shops to stay open.

A year ago, another group that included Merschel attempted to collect signatures to force a recall but never turned in any signatures. 

The committee has so far raised $14,608 for its recall effort, much of it from in-kind and cash contributions made by Cutunilli, her Farmers Corner Kwik Stop store in Breckinridge and Cutunilli Installations, also of Breckinridge.

Cutunilli and Merschel also have been warning their followers and volunteers to avoid making homophobic remarks or threats against Colorado’s first gay governor on the Facebook page, claiming that Facebook is monitoring comments.

Merschel told Colorado Politics Saturday the extension could go all the way to the state Supreme Court, and that additional lawsuits are being considered.