The state Senate on Monday signed off on a bill that would prohibit firearms from being openly carried at polling places or within 100 feet of a ballot drop box.

House Bill 1086, known as the Vote Without Fear Act, passed on a party-line 20-13 vote on Monday.

HB 1086 sponsor Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Longmont, told the Senate the bill promotes a safe and accessible way for Coloradans to cast votes, whether in person at a polling center or at a ballot drop box. Other states, including Texas, Florida and Georgia, already have similar laws on the books, and the bill would protect voters from intimidation.

Minority Leader Sen. Chris Holbert, R-Douglas County, said people hunt in rural Colorado, especially in the fall, which is election time. A hunting guide who comes out of the hunting camp with a firearm and goes to the polls would have to get rid of that firearm, in an area where most people probably wouldn’t even care.

“We’re taking values, perspectives of the world from the metro Denver and Boulder area and applying them statewide,” he saiid. 

He also raised the possibility of a conflict between an existing state law that allows firearms to be carried in a vehicle and the ban in HB 1086, that bans firearms within 100 feet of a ballot drop box. He said that if local jurisdictions wanted to do this, they could based on a preemption law Democrats approved last year that allows local governments to adopt stricter ordinances around firearms than exist in state law. 

“This is more of a statement bill,” Holbert said.

Sen. Jim Smallwood, R-Parker, saluted the idea but said the devil is in the details. He pointed to the definition of peace officer, who are exempted in the bill. But the definition of peace officer in state law goes well beyond police officers. Those defined as peace officers also includes coroners, town marshals, fire arson investigators, the executive director and deputy executive director of the Department of Public Safety, a student loan investigator, a port of entry or Colorado Wildlife officer, a state lottery investigator, the person responsible for marijuana enforcement and the executive director of the Department of Revenue. When you see those people at a polling place openly carrying a firearm, voters will be “magically not be intimidated” by these non-uniformed people, he opined.

“How can this work?” Smallwood said. “This bill needs serious work.”

Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, the bill’s other co-sponsor, said in response that even though only about 5% of voters go to polling locations, that cannot be discounted. Some people still want to go to polling stations or drop boxes.

“It’s all about having access to the ballot box,” she said.

Fields also rejected the urban-rural divide argument. She also reminded lawmakers about a 2020 incident in Arapahoe County, where two men, one with a firearm and wearing a tactical vest, who were filming people at a Littleton government building where ballots were accepted.

“If I saw someone with a gun at a polling station, I’d find another way to cast my ballot,” she said, referring to the voter intimidation tactics of the Civil Rights era.

HB 1086 was one of two election-related bills the Senate approved Monday. The second, which was far less contentious, was Senate Bill 152, which would allows residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the Marshall fire to retain their voter registration at their previous home address, contingent upon a pledge to return to the home when it is habitable or that the homeowner intends to rebuild. The Senate approved the bill on a 33-0 vote, and it now heads to the House.