Clerks required to issue same-sex marriage licenses

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Archuleta County on hold

The Colorado Supreme Court may have removed the legal obstacles that prevented Colorado’s county clerks from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but Archuleta County Clerk June Madrid said Archuleta County isn’t issuing the licenses quite yet.

On Tuesday, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced that county clerks are to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

“There are no remaining legal requirements that prevent same-sex couples from legally marrying in Colorado,” Suthers said on Tuesday. “Beginning today, Colorado’s 64 county clerks are legally required to issue licenses to same-sex couples who request them. In addition, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is required to register such marriages in the records of the State of Colorado.”

But Madrid said Archuleta County is waiting on a bit more clarification, adding that no one had requested a license as of Wednesday morning.

More specifically, Madrid said her office is waiting on the state to distribute an approved application, notify the office of the approved cost and indicate how the licenses should be reported.

Madrid said she is waiting for the additional clarification because of what has happened before, stating that when clerks jumped ahead of the state previously, “it only got us into trouble.”

Too, Madrid said she needs to be sure the CDPHE is ready to accept the marriage licenses.

“We don’t know whether we will have one form or three and if we jump ahead of the State and use one of the ones we have and that’s not what they end up with, we have to contact the applicants and start over,” Madrid wrote in an email to SUN staff. “I personally don’t want to put someone through that.”