Colorado State Laws on Optical Images

State Archivist and Records Manager:

Terry Ketelsen, State Archivist

Div. of Archives & Records

1313 Sherman St. #1B20, Denver CO 80203

303-866-2055 fax: 303-866-2257

Karen Zoltenko, Records Mgmt.

13-26-102. Business and public records as evidence.

If any business, institution, or member of a profession or calling or any

department or agency of government in the regular course of business or

activity keeps or records any memorandum, writing, entry, print, or

representation, or combination thereof, of any act, transaction,

occurrence, or event and in the regular course of business has caused any

of the same to be recorded, copied, or reproduced by any photographic,

photostatic, microfilm, microcard, miniature photographic, optical disk, orother form of mass storage, electronic imaging, electronic data processing,

electronically transmitted facsimile, printout, or other reproduction of

electronically stored data, or other process which accurately reproduces or

forms a durable medium for reproducing the original, the original may be

destroyed in the regular course of business unless held in a custodial or

fiduciary capacity or unless its preservation is required by law. Suchreproduction, when satisfactorily identified, is as admissible in evidence

as the original itself in any judicial or administrative proceeding whether

the original is in existence or not, and an enlargement or facsimile of

such reproduction is likewise admissible in evidence if the original

reproduction is in existence and available for inspection under direction

of court. The introduction of a reproduced record, enlargement, or

facsimile does not preclude admission of the original. This shall not be

construed to exclude from evidence any document or copy thereof which is

otherwise admissible under the rules of evidence.

24-36-106. Record of warrants - order of payment - paid warrants -

validation.

(1) The treasury department shall maintain a list of all warrants drawn

upon the state treasurer by the division of accounts and control and of

those warrants issued and outstanding. Such lists shall be open during

regular business hours for the inspection and examination of every person

desiring to inspect or examine the same.

(2) Warrants shall be paid in the order in which presented to the treasury

department for payment. The state treasurer may validate any warrant

presented for payment after six months from its date of issue for a period

of time not longer than thirty days from the date upon which it is so

presented.

(3) All paid warrants shall be cancelled and, after being microfilmed or

copied through image technology such as optical storage and other

recognized state-of-the-art storage technologies, shall be destroyed

pursuant to part 1 of article 80 of this title. The treasury department is

authorized to enter into an arrangement which allows any bank holding

cancelled warrants to microfilm or copy through other recognizedstate-of-the-art storage technologies and to store said warrants for the

benefit and use of the treasury department, but no bank shall destroy any

cancelled warrant without written authorization from the treasury

department. Any bank producing microfilm or using other recognized

state-of-the-art storage technologies pursuant to this subsection (3) shall

transmit such microfilm or the product of such other recognized

state-of-the-art storage technologies to the treasury department, where it

shall be kept and stored. The treasury department is not authorized to

enter into such an arrangement if the cost of the service charged by the

bank exceeds the cost which the state would incur by providing the same

service.

30-10-407. Microfilm and optical imaging records - when - standards for

optical imaging systems.

(1) When authorized by the board of county commissioners, the county clerk

and recorder in counties, or cities and counties, may record the

instruments lawfully filed for record in his office by making and

preserving microfilm or optical images thereof. Such county clerk and

recorder shall, immediately after the filing for record of real estate

instruments, properly index the same in the manner required by law. When

the microfilm or optical imaging method of recording has been approved by

the board of county commissioners and adopted by the county clerk and

recorder, at least one microfilm reader to make the microfilms legible or

at least one computer terminal to access optical imaging records shall be

provided, and as many more microfilm readers or computer terminals as may

prove necessary to give reasonable service to the public shall also be

provided.

(2) At least two microfilms or two optical imaging database records shall

be made of each recorded instrument, which shall be kept in separate

buildings as far as reasonably may be done in order that they may not be

subject to the same hazards. All sets of the microfilm and all optical

imaging computer data shall be constantly under the control of the county

clerk and recorder. One set of microfilm or one copy of the optical imagingdatabase shall always be kept by the county clerk and recorder, so that the

same is available to the public during the hours that said county clerk and

recorder's office is open for business and so that persons desiring to

inspect or examine the record may do so by means of microfilm reader and

facilities or by means of optical imaging computer terminals maintained in

said county clerk and recorder's office. Said records shall not be removed

from the county clerk and recorder's office at any time for any purpose,

except the security copy, which shall be kept in a security vault approved

by the board of county commissioners and the county clerk and recorder. The

security copy of the microfilm or optical image media may be deposited in

the county records section of the division of state archives and public

records.

(3) Legible size prints shall be made from the microfilm or optical imaging

records by the county clerk and recorder on demand for the fee provided by

law.

(4) Any instrument which cannot be satisfactorily recorded by microfilm or

by optical imaging may be recorded by other methods of photographing or by

transcribing by typewriter or by longhand.

(4.5) Any optical imaging system utilized by a county clerk and recorder

shall, at minimum, produce permanent records which do not permit additions,deletions, or other changes to the original documents.

(5) Nothing in this section shall abridge or limit the power of any court

to compel the production of any microfilm or optical imaging records in any

proceeding.

39-10-105. Receipt for taxes.

(2) The treasurer shall retain in the office as part of the records thereof

a copy of every receipt issued by the treasurer for taxes paid, which

copies shall be recorded or filed in the order of issuance. The original

tax receipt, or a copy thereof, or a copy of any entry in the treasurer's

records concerning the same shall, when certified by the treasurer or the

treasurer's deputy, be received in all places as prima facie evidence of

payments of the taxes. For purposes of this section, "copy" means a

reproduction of the original by any means, including, but not limited to, a

photograph, a microfilm or optical imaging record, a computer disk image,

or any other means of record retention chosen by the treasurer.

(3) When request is made of the treasurer for copies of tax receipts, a fee

shall be collected for each copy of a receipt issued, as provided in

section 30-1-102, C.R.S.

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