Organizers of Gov. Polis recall effort reach deadline, fall short on signatures

DENVER — Today was the deadline for the organizers of "Dismiss Polis" to collect more than 631,000 signatures to submit to the Colorado Secretary of State for verification. A representative for the organization announced this morning the effort fell short.

In the 60 days allotted, the group has roughly 300,000 signatures. That's not enough to submit to the Secretary of State. A representative says about half of the signed petitions made it back to them in time from members who were collecting signatures across the state.

There's no word on whether this group will make another attempt at a recall petition. The signatures collected will not be turned in, allowing people who did sign the petitions to be eligible to sign possible future recall petitions.

For now, they are focused on counting all the signatures they have received, as well as waiting for the remainder to arrive to be counted.

Shortly after the announcement today, Governor Polis' office released the following statement:

"After all that fuss, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't turn in a single signature on the recall. I hope the remaining misguided efforts against others see the same results as Tom Sullivan's did before. Recalls should not be used for political gamesmanship," says Governor Polis. "Now that this sideshow is over, I will continue to focus my full attention on building on building upon our bipartisan success with kindergarten and saving money on health care," the statement continues.

RELATED: Recall efforts against Senators Garcia, Lee

Here's how the recall process works

Under state law, an elected official must be in place for six months before a recall can be attempted. Organizers must collect 25-percent of the total votes cast in the election Governor Polis won last November.

If the signatures are legally collected and verified, things then move to voters. Election officers designate a date for the recall election which has to happen no sooner than 30 days but no later than 60 days from when they're verified. That vote determines if Gov. Polis would be recalled and who voters choose to take his place.

The recall movement was spurred over several hotly contested pieces of legislation including the National Popular Vote Compact which would give Colorado's Electoral Votes to the presidential candidate who wins the Popular Vote. Also, the Red Flag Bill which allows guns to be taken away from people under certain circumstances if deemed a danger or mentally unfit.