Supporters of the Colorado "Personhood" Ballot Initiative have achieved the first step necessary in the process to have a "personhood" amendment added to the 2010 ballot. Nearly 80,000 signatures have been gathered to show support for their cause.

The 79,817 signatures were significantly less than the amount gathered in 2008, when the measure was also introduced and rejected.

In order for the initiative to make it onto the ballot, 95 percent of the signatures submitted must be verified as registered Colorado voters, as Wendy Norris reported earlier this week.

State initiatives generally try to collect 30 percent more
signatures than required to cover the expected names that are
disqualified because they are not registered voters. [Colorado campaign expert Tyler] Chafee predicts
the latest attempt by anti-choice activists will fall about 13,000
signatures short.

Should the initiative have a spoil rate of less than 5 percent, then Colorado residents would be asked to "amend the state constitution so that ‘the term ‘person’ shall apply to
every human being from the beginning of the biological development of
that human being.’"  Voters, asked to weigh in on a similar amendment in 2008, voted 73 to 27 percent against the change.