The responsibilities of the ballot were carefully considercd by the early Masons of Colorado. Grand Master Henry M. Teller at the Fourth Annual Communication admonished: “Admit no one because you can find nothing bad in him; make it a rule that no man shall be admitted who does not possess some trait of character which recommends him for admission.”
Grand Master Archie J. Van Deren in 1865 elaborated further: “The doors of our Lodges are thronged by persons anxious to be admittcd to our mysteries. . . . We cannot be too vigilant in guarding the doors of our Lodges or too careful in the use of the ballot. In this lies our safety. Allow none to pass the threshold except the worthy. Advance none who have not sufficient zcal to learn the lectures of the several degrees. . . . Avoid the blighting defect of filling your Lodges with inefficient and inactive members to become drones in the hive of Masonry, consuming it’s, vitality.”
In 1865, the Lodges rejected more applicants than they approved is a table showing their concern for the ballot:
| Lodge | Membership | Initiated | Rejected |
| Golden City No. 1 | 59 | 5 | 6 |
| Nevada No. 4 | 61 | 8 | 7 |
| Denver No. 5 | 99 | 11 | 22 |
| Chivington No. 6 | 131 | 23 | 16 |
| Union No. 7 | 52 | 10 | 19 |
| Empire No. 8 | 28 | 11 | 12 |
| Blackhawk U.D. | 38 | 17 | 17 |
| Total | 468 | 80 | 99 |
M. W. Brother Teller cautioned further in 1869:
“The demands of the Lodge for money to meet the current expenses, such as rent, lights, and fuel have become so pressing that when a petition is presented, the brethren think more of the advantage to be derived by the candidate’s election in a pecuniary view than of the qualifications which should recommend him to be made a Mason. It is impossible for a small Lodge, embarrassed with debts, to to do justice to the fraternity at large.”
Joseph A. Davis, Grand Master in 1907 observed that the temperate character of the Masonic fraternity had impressed him most during his 5,000 miles of travel. “God has not written on the faces of the membership of the Craft the signs of dissipation and licentiousness and wrong living. They were good husbands, loving fathers, sympathetic neighbors and loyal citizens.”
