"Egg-as-Person" Falls Short of Number Needed For Colorado Ballot

The activists behind the egg-as-person movement--which wants to convey the full rights of personhood under the law on fertilized eggs--have failed in their bid for another ballot initiative (third time's the charm!) in Colorado. Only 82,000 of the more than 112,000 signatures submitted to the office of the secretary of state were able to be validated.

According to Fox News Denver, "Secretary of State Scott Gessler announced Wednesday that the group behind the proposed ballot measure fell 3,859 signatures short of the 86,105 they needed to qualify for the November ballot."

If true, that means that approximately 30,000 signatures, or 25 percent of those gathered were unable to be verified. However, the Colorado Personhood Coalition rejects the state's claims and said that they will sue to have the rejected signatures reviewed.

"The law states that we have 30 days to file a challenge, and we fully intend to do so. Based on the Secretary of State's 5% sample, we have calculated that we will be able to recover the signatures necessary to appear on the ballot," said Personhood USA legal analyst for Gualberto Garcia Jones, J.D., via press release .

"This disqualification is by an extremely narrow number, and as we have seen thousands of valid voter signatures discarded unnecessarily, we will be filing a challenge to ensure that every Colorado voter's voice is heard, and that every signature counts."

The "personhood" amendment was on the ballot in Colorado in both the 2008 and 2010 elections. The initiatives were soundly rejected both times.