Colorado: New Tag Reissue Process

Previously, during the May 2023 Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission Meeting, the Commission directed staff to form a Draw Process Working Group (DWG), and the DWG has been working since then on these focus topics: draw methods for the Primary and Secondary draws, preference points, the weighted draw for sheep, goat and moose, and the reissue process. Policies that were recommended to remain status quo were not discussed. Recommendations for change were considered by the Commission during the January 8-9, 2025, meeting. Approved policies/regulations will not be implemented until the 2028 draws in order to allow time for draw reprogramming. These policies will also be re-examined every 10 years. This BLOG will highlight:

Reissue Process

Auto-reissue

 

First Change:
● The reissue process is automated and is used to resell any license that is
surrendered, not paid for by the payment deadline, or returned up to two
weeks prior to the start of the season.
● Licenses are automatically reissued to the next eligible applicant in the
draw order (by residency based on the next up report) that has opted-in to
accept auto reissues.
● Applicants can opt-in to accept auto reissues by hunt code during the
application process. They can also change their opt-in status at any time,
prior to being issued a license for that hunt code.
● When a license is auto-reissued, the system charges the customer for the
license.

Second Change:
● If the hunt code was applied for as a first choice during the Primary Draw,
then all preference points for that species also become void with the auto
reissue. If the hunt code was applied for as a second, third, or fourth
choice or during the Secondary Draw, then no points are used.

 

Weekly reissues

• 
  Any deer, elk, bear, pronghorn or turkey licenses that are returned two
  weeks or less prior to the start of the season or returned at any time but
  do not have any eligible applicants to auto-reissue the license to, will be
  placed on the weekly reissue list.

• Those licenses will be released at 11:00 am MT on Wednesdays weekly,
  with a preview list posted the Tuesday prior.
• Licenses purchased during the weekly reissue release are treated as
  leftover licenses and do not require the use of preference points to
  purchase.

 

Manual reissues

 

• Any Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, desert bighorn sheep, mountain goat or
  moose license returned two weeks or less prior to the start of the season
  will be manually reissued to the applicant next up in the draw order (by
  residency based on the next up report). This is done manually by CPW
  staff, not automatically by the system. The customer must approve the
  manual reissue.
• When a license is manually reissued, the customer is charged for the
  license and all preference points for that species become void.
• If there are no eligible applicants to manually reissue the license to or if
  none of the next five applicants in line accept the license, the license
  becomes available as a part of the next weekly reissue process.

 

Fail to Pay

● If a customer draws a license during any limited license draw, but the
license is not paid for by the payment deadline, the license is removed
from the customer’s account and auto-reissued (as described above) to the
next applicant in the draw order. If preference points were used to obtain
the license, those preference points are restored to the pre-draw level.