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Why Do Colorado Ballots Show So Many Presidential Candidates?

Andy Cross
/
The Denver Post

It seems pretty much anyone can run for president in the Centennial State these days.

When Denver Post columnist Steve Lipsher openedhis Colorado voting ballot last week, he was astounded by the number of presidential candidates he saw there. Where he expected to see a handful of names, he found “an astounding 22 would-be Leaders of The Free World.”

Before voting, he’d gone to a nonpartisan website to study his choices. But the website made no mention of “Rocky” De La Fuente of the self-created American Delta Party. Nor did he find any information about James Hedges, the nominee of the Prohibition Party, which hopes to take America back to the days when hooch was contraband.

So, why so many candidates? In Colorado, it only costs $1,000 to earn a spot on the ballot. Colorado is one of only two states that makes it so easy. Louisiana is the other.