Colorado’s two-pronged process to get on this year’s June 28 primary ballot is in full swing, with precinct caucuses kicking off the scramble for delegates during the first five days of March and dozens of candidates accelerating the chase for signatures as the March 15 deadline to submit nominating petitions looms.

Candidates can take multiple routes to the state’s Democratic or Republican ballot: by collecting signatures, by going through the assembly process, or by opting for both methods.

The assembly track involves winning support from 30% of the delegates at county, district and state assemblies, with both major parties wrapping up on April 9.

This year, the Republicans will be convening at the World Arena in Colorado Springs, where they’ll designate candidates for U.S. senator and statewide offices, with the top vote-getter in each category winning top-line designation on the ballot. There will be less suspense on the Democratic side at the party’s virtual convention on the same day, since the Democratic incumbents who hold all those offices are seeking reelection and face only nominal opposition.

Candidates can also gain entry in the primaries by gathering signatures from fellow party members. That process began in mid-January, giving potential contenders roughly two months to collect their John Hancocks, with varied requirements depending on the office sought.

Those who go both the assembly and petition route face the same petition requirements but only need support from 10% of delegates to get on the ballot.

Candidates often start out simultaneously pursuing delegate votes and petition signatures – “We’re keeping all options open” is a familiar refrain – but usually pick one or the other, because it’s the rare campaign with the resources to go all-in on both.

In recent years, leading candidates for major office in Colorado have run into a range of calamities while attempting to convert the signatures they’ve collected into spots on primary ballots, sometimes resulting in derailed campaigns, enormous legal expenses and a couple of hair-raising reversals.

In 2018, for instance, Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton withdrew his petitions after they’d been deemed sufficient when evidence emerged that the firm he’d hired had cut corners, potentially invalidating hundreds of signatures.

Within days, Stapleton’s campaign retooled and jumped into the state assembly, where he secured top-line in the primary and prevented some potential rivals from emerging. He went on to win a four-way primary – two other candidates qualified by petition – but lost in November to Democrat Jared Polis, who is seeking a second term this year. Stapleton later sued the petition-gathering firm for breach of contract and recouped the money he’d paid.

Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn had hired the same firm in 2018 – it was a lawsuit challenging his petitions that brought the irregularities to light – and had to take his case to multiple state and federal courts before a judge placed him on the ballot.

Several other candidates have hit snags at the end of their petition drives, most prominently Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser, who discovered after he officially made the ballot that one of the petition-gatherers hired by the firm he’d engaged had forged numerous signatures, including at least one who had died before supposedly signing his petition. While he remained on the primary ballot, his campaign never recovered from the waves of bad news, and the one-time frontrunner finished fourth in a field of five candidates.

Last cycle, candidates who were pushing the petition deadline saw their efforts go up in smoke as pandemic restrictions made signature-gathering all but impossible for the last, crucial weeks. Democratic U.S. Senate hopefuls Lorena Garcia, Michelle Ferrigno Warren and Diana Bray sought a work-around, but a judge’s ruling kept them off the ballot.

More candidates are trying to petition their way onto the ballot this year than in any previous year, though the 69 candidates aiming for Colorado’s 2022 primary ballot just barely edges out the previous high point of 67 candidates who pulled petitions in 2018. Neither year’s total is typical, however, since fewer than half as many candidates took the petition route in 2016 and 2020, with fewer still making the attempt in previous election years.

Different from last cycle, when it took 10,500 valid signatures to make the primary ballots for governor and U.S. senator – with 1,500 required from each of the state’s seven congressional districts – this year candidates for the two ticket-topping offices must turn in 12,000 valid signatures, since Colorado has added an eighth congressional district, with the same minimum requirement from each district.

Candidates for other statewide offices need to gather 1,000 signatures per congressional district, for a total of 8,000.

Congressional candidates have to turn in 1,500 valid signatures, while legislative candidates need 1,000 signatures, whether they’re running for the state House or the state Senate. (In the rare districts with exceptionally low numbers of registered voters or poor turnout, candidates can turn in 30% of the number of votes cast in the previous cycle’s primary if it’s less than the stated requirement.)

In addition to handling petitions for U.S. Senate and U.S. House candidates, the Secretary of State’s Office oversees candidates seeking statewide executive offices – governor, attorney general, state treasurer, secretary of state – as well as candidates for the General Assembly, the State Board of Education, University of Colorado Board of Regents and district attorneys.

independent and minor-party candidates face different requirements and deadlines, as do candidates for other petition efforts administered by the Secretary of State’s Office, including RTD directors. Candidates petitioning at the county level – for commissioner, county treasurer, assessor, sheriff, coroner and surveyor – go through their respective county clerks’ offices. Petitions for citizen-initiated ballot measures, referenda and recalls operate under different procedures with different timelines, though the Secretary of State’s Office is responsible for the statewide versions.

So far, only five of the 69 candidates who have gotten the OK to circulate petitions this year have filed completed petitions, which could make for a traffic jam when petitions start to pour in days before the deadline.

The order that candidates turn in their petitions can make a big difference, because under Colorado law, voters are only allowed to sign one petition per race. If they sign more than one petition for the same race, it doesn’t matter which one they signed first, because signatures are verified and counted in the order that completed petitions are received.

State House District 6 candidate Elizabeth Epps, a Denver Democrat running in a crowded primary for an open seat, submitted hers first, on Feb. 9. Since then, four congressional candidates have gotten theirs in: Lamborn, the Colorado Springs Republican running for a ninth term in the 5th Congressional District; Erik Aadland, a Pine Republican running in the open 7th Congressional District; Jan Kulmann, a Thornton Republican – she’s the city’s mayor – running in the open 8th Congressional District; and Dom Waters, a Denver Democrat hoping to challenge 12-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in the 1st Congressional District.

As of March 3, two candidates had notified the Secretary of State’s Office they were withdrawing their petitions – a Democrat hoping to challenge Lamborn and a Republican who had his eyes on facing Polis – leaving 62 candidates still circulating theirs.

About half are legislative candidates, though an unusually high number of congressional candidates are also circulating petitions, in part due to the creation of the new 8th CD as well as an unexpected opening in the 7th Congressional District after eight-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter announced in January that he isn’t seeking another term.

For the second cycle in a row, Lamborn has qualified for the primary ballot before anyone else.

He learned on March 1 that the Secretary of State’s Office determined he submitted enough valid signatures, making him the only candidate so far guaranteed a berth in the primary. Lamborn had a comfortable margin, with 2,297 signatures ruled valid, well above the required 1,500 signatures for congressional races. Last cycle, Lamborn tied with Democratic legislative candidate Daniel Himelsbach when both petitioning candidates qualified on the same day. (Himelsbach went on to lose the primary in the Denver-based state House District 6 to state Rep. Steven Woodrow, who was appointed to fill a vacancy months before the primary and easily won election to a full term in the heavily Democratic district.)

Hours after Lamborn was notified he’d made the ballot, Waters found out she’d failed to qualify, though it couldn’t have come as much of a surprise, since she only turned in 105 of signatures out of the 1,500 needed.

Lamborn, who has faced primary challengers in all but two of his nine campaigns for Congress, has changed his tune about petitions over the years.

In 2012, Lamborn derided petitioning opponent Robert Blaha, saying that the Republican was demonstrating his weakness among the party faithful by bypassing the assembly and doubted “the people of Colorado can be bought so easily.” After a close call in 2016 when he was nearly kept from the ballot by a surprise challenger at the assembly, Lamborn has petitioned his way into the race every time since.