Colorado

Articles about voting issues in Colorado.

Groups urge veto of limits on voted-ballot inspections | The Denver Post

May 172012

A growing coalition is asking Gov. John Hickenlooper to veto a bill that creates rules for public inspection of voted ballots, saying it is “an unprecedented step” to block the public’s right to ensure fair elections that was “ramrodded” through the legislature in its final days. Among those who have contacted Hickenlooper or plan to do so are members of the Colorado Lawyers Committee Election Task Force, the chairman of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, Colorado Common Cause, Colorado Ethics Watch and two election-integrity groups. ”The reality of this legislation is that at the most critical time, when the public has an interest in clerks’ management of elections, it creates an unprecedented exemption from (the Colorado Open Records Act),” said John Zakhem, a prominent elections attorney. Read More »

Senate gives initial approval to inactive-voter bill | The Denver Post

May 072012

The Democratic-controlled Senate gave initial approval Friday to a bill that would require mail ballots be sent to about 135,000 inactive voters for the 2012 election, a measure Republicans oppose and Democrats have called a top priority. The debate showed just how dearly Democrats — currently at a voter registration disadvantage of about 118,000 active voters — would like to see House Bill 1267 become law before the November election, when Colorado will be a critical swing state. ”I think we ought to do everything we can to make sure (inactive voters) have the right to vote,” Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, said. Earlier Friday, Democrats tried to attach two election-related bills with strong bipartisan support to the inactive voter legislation. Read More »

County goes to court Friday vs. Colorado Secretary of State over uncontested primaries | Colorado Springs Gazette

May 052012

Judge David Gilbert of the 4th Judicial District will hear a case at 2 p.m. Friday that will determine whether El Paso County must conduct two primary elections that are uncontested. County Clerk & Recorder Wayne Williams canceled the county’s Democratic and American Constitution primaries last Friday, prompting Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler to file suit against the county. Williams spoke at Thursday’s county commissioners meeting about the lawsuit and his belief that a 2009 law allows a Clerk to cancel a party’s primary election while still conducting another party’s primary. Gessler believes if any party has a primary, then all primaries must be conducted. The Republican primary is June 26. Williams said the county will incur “no additional cost to fight this in court” beyond the time spent by county attorneys. Read More »

Marks prevails in Jefferson County CO case | AspenTimes.com

Apr 262012

A District Court judge has deemed election records in Jefferson County open to public review and has awarded attorney’s fees to Aspen election activist Marilyn Marks, who was denied access to the information. Judge Randall Arp, in a ruling issued Monday, directed Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Pamela Anderson to provide the records requested by Marks and rejected the clerk’s claim that release of the information could violate voter rights to an anonymous ballot. Any information that could potentially lead to identification of an individual voter who cast a ballot could be redacted, Arp concluded. Marks said Tuesday that her legal expenses in the case total about $100,000. Jefferson is among several counties in Colorado where Marks has asked to view ballots or other election data under the Colorado Open Records Act, or CORA, helping fuel statewide debate about whether ballots cast by voters should be subject to the open-records law. Read More »

State high court to review Aspen ballot-images case | AspenTimes.com

Apr 172012

The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to hear the city of Aspen’s motion to appeal September’s state Court of Appeals ruling that favored political activist Marilyn Marks’ lawsuit challenging the city’s denial of her request to view ballot images from the 2009 mayoral race. According to the city, the Court of Appeals erred when it held that the Colorado Constitution does not protect the secrecy of ballots. On Nov. 11, the city requested a review of the case by the state Supreme Court. “In elections, there is a functional conflict between two important values: the ability to verify election results and the right of voters to a secret ballot,” the city’s motion states. “All election systems used in the United States since the introduction of the secret ballot in the (late 19th century) have sought to strike a compromise between these two values. In arriving at a compromise, election systems have uniformly given greater weight to secrecy over verifiability.” The motion goes on to say that since 1876, the Colorado Legislature has enacted numerous laws to secure the purity of elections and “guard against the abuses of the elective franchise.” Read More »

Lawmakers battle over inactive voters | Aurora Sentinel

Apr 132012

Senate Democrats moved to take down what they say is a roadblock that makes it more difficult for more than 100,000 voters to participate in the November elections, resurrecting a proposal Monday that House Republicans previously rejected. The legislative action would send mail-in ballots to so-called inactive voters who otherwise would have to cast ballots in person. And the implications are huge. About 37 percent of the affected voters are Democrats. Around 23 percent are Republicans. The remaining 40 percent are unaffiliated — a bloc both parties think they can use to pick up support. Democrats say they are pressing the issue to make voting easier, adding that the issue is more urgent with important state issues and the White House on the line. ”I would think that we would want every possible soul who’s eligible to vote, to be able to vote in that election,” said Sen. Rollie Heath, the chair of the committee that brought back the plan. Read More »

Fighting over voters who don't always vote | 9news.com

Apr 112012

Some people don’t vote in every election, preferring to cast a ballot only in presidential election years. In Colorado, those voters are purged when they miss a midterm election, with their status changed to “inactive voters.” Inactive voters are still eligible to vote, but they won’t receive a mail-in ballot even if they signed up to be permanent mail-in voters. Democrats are fighting especially hard to change that just in time for the 2012 presidential election. Republicans have a much smaller share of Colorado’s inactive voters, and political watchers say the Democrats don’t want to lose any votes from President Obama’s 2008 supporters. Democrats say they’re not only concerned with “bandwagon” voters. ”There are all kinds of reasons that people don’t vote once, and we’re going to basically take them off the rolls because they failed to vote once? That doesn’t make any sense to me at all,” Sen. Rollie Heath (D-Boulder) said. Health is concerned about people who miss an election due to military service or illness. Read More »

Democrats hope bill can deliver mail ballots, presidential votes | The Denver Post

Apr 102012

In the run-up to the 2008 election, then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign orchestrated one of the largest voter registration efforts in history, blanketing the country to register people door-to-door, at rallies and on college campuses. The strategy paid off. In Colorado, the number of registered Democrats increased by roughly 186,000 — almost four times the number of new Republicans. Unaffiliated voters also grew more than Republicans, then broke hard for Obama on Election Day, helping him clinch a 9 percentage point victory here. The enthusiasm didn’t carry over to 2010. According to data provided by the secretary of state’s office and analyzed by The Denver Post, of voters from all parties registered in 2008, nearly one-third did not cast ballots in the midterm election two years later. Read More »

Photo ID at the polls nixed by Colorado lawmakers | necn.com

Apr 062012

Senate Democrats nixed a proposal to ask voters whether people should provide photo identification at the polls amid concerns Wednesday that the measure would create barriers for people least likely to have IDs — minorities, the elderly and the homeless. The hearing became so intense at one point that the chair of the committee considering the bill threatened to cancel the hearing after an outburst from people during testimony. The Republican-sponsored bill would ask voters in November whether people should show a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport, before being able to vote. The proposal would also remove utility bills, bank statements, and naturalization documents as valid forms of identification during elections. Colorado’s proposal failed on a party-line vote on the same day Minnesota lawmakers passed a measure asking voters in November whether people should present photo identification for voting. Similar requirements have faced legal challenges in Texas and Wisconsin. However, Indiana’s photo ID law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Read More »

Democrats resurrect bill that would allow counties to mail ballots to inactive voters | The Denver Post

Apr 062012

In a move likely to inflame partisan tensions, Colorado Democrats plan to graft dead legislation allowing counties to mail ballots to 439,560 “inactive voters” onto a resurrected Republican bill. House Republicans said Senate Democrats were “hijacking” the House bill. But Democrats said the issue of allowing registered voters who didn’t vote in the last election to receive mail ballots was too important to give up. ”If it’s going to be a fight, this is worth fighting over,” Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, an organizer of the Democratic effort, said. House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said he was surprised by the Democratic move. ”I know that from time to time bills are hijacked for other purposes,” McNulty said. “It’s pretty extraordinary that Senate Democrats would resurrect a (Republican) bill like this. It is extraordinary that they would go to these efforts.” Read More »

Bar codes allow ballots to be traced back to voters in dozens of Colorado counties | The Colorado Independent

Mar 312012

The challenges mounting on Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s desk go beyond whether to mail ballots to residents who haven’t voted in a while. He has another predicament: bar codes. Unique identifying numbers, or bar codes, that can trace citizens to how they voted appear on ballots in dozens of counties in Colorado — a revelation that is not only troublesome but possibly illegal. Ballots are not allowed to have “distinguishing marks,” according to state law. A coalition of Colorado voters is suing Gessler (pdf) and a half dozen county clerks in a Denver federal court, contending the officials are presiding over unconstitutional elections. The litigation stems from a separate dispute over whether cast ballots should be made public so that elections can be verified by someone outside of government. When clerks argued ballots could not be seen by members of the public because it was theoretically possible to figure out how specific people voted in certain elections, the bar code problem became apparent. “We didn’t think the clerks were serious. We thought they were pulling our leg, putting up a smokescreen,” said Aspen-based election activist Marilyn Marks. “We didn’t think it was true, but it is.” Read More »

Republicans kill Colorado voter-registration measure | The Durango Herald

Mar 312012

House Republicans on Wednesday killed a bill on voter registration from one of their own members, Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose. The bill was a reaction to Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s effort to prevent county clerks from mailing ballots to people unless they voted in the last major election. After the vote, Democratic leaders were so angry they called for Gessler’s removal as the state’s top elections official. The House Local Government Committee killed Coram’s bill on a party-line, 6-5 vote. It had passed the Senate 24-10. Read More »

Democrats want Secretary of State Scott Gessler removed from office | The Denver Post

Mar 302012

Colorado Democrats unleashed some of their strongest criticism yet of Secretary of State Scott Gessler Wednesday, saying he should be removed from office after he opposed an election-related bill that was later killed by fellow Republicans. ”(Gessler) has once again prioritized his partisan agenda above the rights of Coloradans to vote,” Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio said. “If (he) is unwilling to fulfill his duties as a non-partisan election officer, the people of Colorado should consider all avenues necessary to remove him as Secretary of State.” Asked if the Democratic party was referring to a recall election, spokesman Matt Inzeo replied: “I wouldn’t rule it out.” Read More »

Secretary of State Gessler asks Homeland Security to ID noncitizens on voter rolls | The Denver Post

Mar 192012

Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler has asked the Department of Homeland Security to provide his office with the citizenship status of about 4,500 registered voters — his latest tactic in an ongoing effort to remove noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls. ”It is imperative to the integrity of Colorado elections that we ensure only U.S. citizens are registered to vote and voting in our elections,” Gessler wrote in the March 8 letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Critics of the move agreed only U.S. citizens should vote but said Gessler is going to extremes during a crucial election year — in a key battleground state — to address a problem that his office so far has been unable to quantify. Read More »

Ballot bill passes Colorado Senate committee | The Pueblo Chieftain

Mar 162012

A Senate committee passed a bill Wednesday that would limit when completed ballots can be inspected, despite objections from voters’ rights advocates who said the documents should be publicly available on demand. Lawmakers introduced SB155 in response to a Colorado Court of Appeals ruling that affirmed ballots are subject to inspection under the Colorado Open Records Act. It would limit the availability of ballots around election time and institute safeguards to prevent individual voters’ ballots from being traced back to them. “It’s not a problem for Pueblo, because our ballots aren’t being requested under CORA,” said Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz, who supports the bill. “Our job is to protect voter privacy. That’s why we need this. Transparency is important, but voter privacy is sacred.” The bill would shield ballots from inspection for 45 days preceding an election through a recount time period. Sponsors said that would prevent the inspection process from compromising the election process. Read More »

Lawmakers weigh ballot privacy against public recount inspection | The Denver Post

Mar 152012

With Colorado considered a key battleground state in November, the last thing anyone wants is a Florida-style fiasco, supporters of an elections recount bill testified today. Senate Bill 155 sets procedures for public inspection of voted ballots, while attempting to ensure that how Coloradans voted remains confidential. Under the proposal, anyone filing an open-records request to inspect ballots would not be able to do so 45 days prior to an election or 17 days after so that clerks can concentrate on their election duties. Outside that time period, the ballots would be available for inspection. ”It is not a stretch to imagine that Colorado could find itself with a very close result in the upcoming election,” said Donetta Davidson, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association. ”Should that happen, this bill will give Coloradans a road map to inspect the election results without compromising voter privacy. And it is our hope this bill will make us much less likely to see legal battles and inconsistent court rulings.” Read More »

Spokesman for Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler rejects voter suppression accusations against him | Denver News

Mar 122012

Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler claims he’s under unwarranted attacks by media and Democratic leaders like Rick Palacio, who recently accused Gessler’s proposed voting policy as an attempt at voter suppression. Palacio connected Gessler’s legislations to the 1965 civil rights movement, during which advocates protesting for African-American voting rights were beaten by police. ”This time, however, Americans won’t be faced with night sticks. They’ll instead be faced with new laws written by the Republican legislature and the Secretary of State,” Palacio said at a Monday press conference. Rich Coolidge, a spokesman for Gessler’s office, replies to Palacio’s comment: “Instead of giving Colorado voters a positive message about his candidates, chairman Palacio is resorting to fear-mongering and distorted, negative attacks. I hope this doesn’t set the tone for the rest of the year.” Read More »

17,000 Coloradans receive flawed voter registration cards from D.C.-based group | The Denver Post

Feb 282012

More than 17,000 Coloradans received voter-registration cards in the mail last week as part of a Washington, D.C.-based organization’s campaign to register unmarried women, minorities and young adults before the 2012 elections. One problem: Anyone who filled out and mailed in the cards won’t be registered. The cards were mailed by the Voter Participation Center, an arm of Women’s Voices, Women Vote. The mailing included a pre-printed return envelope addressed to the Colorado secretary of state’s office. But the forms were missing a signature line and affidavit — information required under state law. Between Thursday and noon Friday, the secretary of state’s office received 180 forms, all of them missing the critical information, spokesman Andrew Cole said. Read More »

Voting rights and wrongs | Colorado Springs Independent

Feb 252012

Not often do government officials get to bask in positive news. ”It’s not the type of story that a reporter is generally looking for,” admits Marilyn Marks with a laugh. But the Aspen-based elections activist says credit is due to El Paso County’s clerk and recorder. Marks is the founder of The Citizen Center, a nonprofit whose recent lawsuit against numerous elections officials, including Secretary of State Scott Gessler, alleges that thousands of Coloradans are being denied one of a free society’s most basic rights: a secret ballot. Without a fix, she says, Colorado could find itself at the center of a national election scandal this November. And El Paso County, she says, “is a model that others ought to follow.” Read More »

Bill against lying to voters sparks debate | Boulder Daily Camera

Feb 242012

A proposal to enhance penalties for lying to suppress voting is the latest divisive voting measure to hit Colorado’s Legislature. The Democratic Senate gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill making it a felony to intentionally lie about an election with the “intent to prevent a person from voting.” Such behavior is already illegal, but Democratic Sen. Irene Aguilar said penalties should be tougher. ”Deceiving voters about any aspect of the voting process should be patently illegal,” she said. Aguilar’s bill would cover lying about when elections are held — the old, dirty trick of telling likely opponents an election is Wednesday — and lying about eligibility or where to vote. Read More »

Voters' rights group sues Gessler, Colorado clerks in U.S. District Court | Center Post Dispatch

Feb 222012

The Citizen Center, a non-partisan, non-profit Colorado voter’s group filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court Monday seeking an injunction and declaratory judgment against Secretary of State Scott Gessler and six Colorado clerk and recorders. The Citizen Center uses public advocacy and high-impact legal tools to ensure greater transparency and accountability in government and public oversight of government and elections. The group is asking that Gessler and the clerks of Mesa, Boulder, Chafee, Jefferson, Eagle and Larimer counties immediately halt practices that violate voters’ constitutional rights to cast anonymous, untraceable ballots. Read More »

Group Claims Colorado Can Snoop on Voters | Courthouse News Service

Feb 162012

The Colorado Secretary of State and six county clerks have “unconstitutionally arrogated” to themselves an election system that can trace ballots “to the individual voters who cast those ballots,” a watchdog group claims in Federal Court. Citizen Center, a nonprofit, seeks declaratory judgment and an injunction against the Colorado Secretary of State and the clerks of Mesa, Larimer, Jefferson, Boulder, Chaffee and Eagle Counties. Read More »

Opponents of Colorado proposal to relax oversight of electronic voting want to strengthen safeguards, not reduce them | Pueblo Chieftain

Feb 162012

Opponents of Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s proposal to relax oversight of electronic voting machines testified Tuesday that now is the time to strengthen safeguards, not reduce them. Gessler and Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz countered during a rule-making hearing that they believe sufficient protections against voter fraud still would exist under the proposed rule change. In its present form the change would reduce the required number of seals designed to prevent tampering with voting machines, end the continuous video surveillance of the machines that is presently required before and after elections and leave investigations of suspicious incidents involving the machines to county officials rather than Gessler’s office. Mandatory inspection of the machines by the secretary of state’s office also would be eliminated under the proposed rule. Read More »

Scott Gessler targeted by activist over voting in Saguache county and beyond | Denver News

Feb 152012

The woman behind Citizen Center, a nonprofit organization that focuses on elections issues and more, is pushing Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s office to hold a hearing prompted by her complaint about alleged voting irregularities in Saguache County. And today, she plans to announce a broader lawsuit focusing on Gessler and officials in several other counties. Marks’s background? “I used to be the primary owner and CEO of a trailer manufacturing firm,” she says. “I retired to Aspen in 2002 and ran for mayor in 2009 — and that experience caused me to get completely passionate about Colorado’s elections, which are some of the least transparent, most troublesome elections in the country. In the past almost-three years, I have become a full-time election-quality advocate: I have seven active lawsuits going on across the state on election transparency and election quality. And now, I’ve established a nonprofit so that I can continue my work in a more organized way.” Read More »

Voters file suit against Gessler, six county clerks over ballots | The Denver Post

Feb 142012

A group of Colorado voters filed a federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Scott Gessler and six county clerks today, saying their election practices are unconstitutional because they allow some ballots to be traced to the person who cast them. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, argues that voters in those counties are being deprived of their right to a secret vote, and asks a federal judge to order the practices stopped. ”The right to a secret ballot is a revered principle of American democracy,” said Marilyn Marks, a voting integrity activist who founded Citizen Center, the group that filed the lawsuit. ”No one, most particularly government officials, should have access to information that can connect ballots with voters,” Marks said. Read More »

Messy contests in Nevada, Iowa raise questions as several states prepare to caucus for GOP | The Washington Post

Feb 082012

After back-to-back fiascos in Nevada and Iowa, the term “caucus” may be on its way to becoming a bad word in the GOP lexicon. Those troubled contests cast a shadow over the volunteer-run presidential selection process as the GOP’s caucus season begins Tuesday night in Colorado and Minnesota. In all, 10 states are scheduled to hold caucuses in February and March. For now, national Republicans have shied away from calling for the end of caucuses in favor of straight-vote primaries. Critics say it is only a matter of time before the caucus troubles become too great to ignore. “The average voter does not want to go to an event that is going to take one, two or three hours,” said Republican state Assemblyman Pat Hickey of Reno. “In that regard, I think it doesn’t work well, especially in states like Nevada.” Read More »

Battle rages over tracing voted ballots in Colorado - The Denver Post

Jan 272012

Last fall, Larimer County Clerk and Recorder Scott Doyle invited state lawmakers and a handful of other people to an eye-opening presentation. Flipping through a slide show, Doyle showed them how, because of the level of reporting required for Colorado elections, he could use publicly available logs and reports to locate which ballots that some of the lawmakers — and one legislator’s wife — cast in the 2010 election. Doyle didn’t go so far as to remove the ballots from their sealed boxes to see how each person voted, but his point was clear: If someone had all the pieces at their fingertips, that person could do so, at least for some voters in many counties. Read More »

Recall election brings new Saguache clerk | The Pueblo Chieftain

Jan 262012

County Clerk and Recorder Melinda Myers lost her recall election by more than a 2-1 margin Tuesday night and will be replaced by the candidate she beat in a controversial 2010 election. Voters recalled Myers, 941-453, pushing her from office 14 months after an election that prompted two reviews by the secretary of state and another by a statewide grand jury. Republican Carla Gomez, who lost to Myers in the last election, topped independent Patricia Jenkins, 762-319, according to Tuesday’s final unofficial results. Read More »

Former Secretary of State, EAC Commissioner Davidson to Head Colorado County Clerks Association | Colorado Statesman

Jan 182012

The Colorado County Clerks Association announced last month that the Honorable Donetta Davidson, a former Colorado Secretary of State and current U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner, will be the organization’s first executive director. Davidson brings the expertise of more than 30 years in the administration of elections at the local, state and federal levels. She served Colorado as the secretary of state, the state’s director of elections, and as a clerk and recorder in both Arapahoe and Bent counties. She is currently a commissioner on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and served as chair in 2010 and 2007. Read More »

Required photo IDs for voting not likely | The Pueblo Chieftain

Jan 072012

Debates aside over whether identification requirements to vote are ploys to disenfranchise the poor or to make voter fraud easier, there’s little chance that Colorado will institute a photo ID requirement until it cleans up its own system of issuing them, according to one local state lawmaker.

Rep. Keith Swerdfeger, R-Pueblo West, said that the complicated process of getting a state identification card has been a hurdle in passing legislation to require IDs. “I’m a believer in a state ID to vote but how do we streamline the process?” he asked.
He’s talked a few times with Jon Manley, assistant director of the Pueblo Department of Revenue office, about the problems and gotten an earful from constituents, too. The controversy over photo IDs has surfaced in a number of states.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently intervened to block a South Carolina law opponents charged was aimed at discouraging the poor and minorities to vote. In Wisconsin, charges flew from opponents of Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislators facing a recent recall election that motor vehicle offices were either closed in Democratic areas or employees were told not to inform people that IDs could be obtained for free.
The argument goes that the poor, especially the elderly, will find it harder to obtain IDs if they have no way of getting to state offices or have to do a lot of paperwork. Read More »

Should military members who did not vote in 2010 receive a ballot? | State of Elections

Dec 272011

It may sound like a simple issue, but Colorado is currently in an uproar over this issue. The City of Denver had been planning to send mail ballots to all registered voters, including inactive military voters. In response, Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler made the controversial move of filing suit against the city, arguing that Colorado law only allows localities to mail ballots to those on the active voting list. The full complaint can be found here. Because the election is mere weeks away, John Tomasic of The Colorado Independent notes that this new directive seems likely to effectively disenfranchise the effected soldiers.

Colorado law requires ballots to be sent out to all active registered voters, but it does not explicitly prohibit county clerks from being more proactive. According to The Daily Sentinel, Mesa County Clerk Sheila Reiner argued that counties should be able to do more if they wish. “I had made a decision early on not to include the inactive voters because it wasn’t required,” Reiner said. “But I have to agree with the Denver County clerk and recorder that the statute requirements are only a minimum, and in many areas clerks often go over and above depending on the needs of their counties.” Read More »

Secretary of State Gessler embraces being targeted over his push for reforms | The Denver Post

Dec 262011

During his first meeting with county clerks, newly elected Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler made a comment that some at the table found odd but would later prove prophetic. I’m probably going to be in court more than any previous secretary of state, Gessler said, according to several people in the room.

Just one year into his first term, the prediction hasn’t come true yet. But neither Gessler nor his critics will be surprised if it does. ”Folks are gunning for me, and the lawsuit-happy folks are the ones I fought for years,” the former elections attorney said. “I’m a target.”

If the Republican Gessler is a target, his critics contend, it’s because he’s made himself one with a series of moves — from trying to work at his former job while in office to suing two county clerks to proposing a wholesale rewrite of Colorado’s campaign-finance rules. Read More »

Traceable ballots could sabotage Colorado elections in 2012 | Center Post Dispatch

Dec 242011

As Colorado shapes up to be a swing state during the 2012 General Election, suggested changes to Secretary of State (SOS) rules governing election integrity and transparency could further endanger Coloradoans’ rights to an anonymous ballot and honest elections.

Those hoping for a fair election outcome in a crucial race for the White House will instead probably face relaxed security precautions for already compromised electronic voting devices. They also could be faced with a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) blackout that would deny access to key election documents for nearly 90 days during the election cycle.

The CORA block would prevent poll watchers, media, and ordinary citizens from examining ballots, and would delay and restrict examination of logs, poll books, and other essential election information in the event of a disputed election. This even after Colorado Sec. of State Scott Gessler won a lawsuit in August 2011 against Saguache County Clerk Melinda Myers, with District Judge Martin Gonzales ruling that ballots are public records and Gessler as well as ordinary citizens have a right to request and inspect them. Read More »

Voting machine security questioned | The Durango Herald

Dec 092011

Secretary of State Scott Gessler wants to make it easier for counties to comply with rules for electronic voting machines, but watchdogs say the changes increase the risk of hackers stealing an election. Gessler will hold a meeting today to discuss the changes, but plaintiffs in a 2006 lawsuit that led to the decertification of several voting machines did not wait to let loose with criticism.

Jeff Sherman, an Iraq veteran who worked on democracy-building in that country, said he is dismayed U.S. elections are vulnerable to fraud through voting machines. “We have a system that is a light to the world. I think it does all of us a disservice when there are questions about elections,” Sherman said.

Colorado has not had any known instance of election-hacking, but Sherman’s lawyer, Paul Hultin, cited an exercise by Argonne National Laboratory in which scientists hacked into a voting machine from half a mile away using cheap, off-the-shelf equipment. Read More »

Secretary of State proposing changes to voting machine security making the already-vulnerable equipment more susceptible to hacking | The Denver Post

Dec 082011

The Colorado Secretary of State’s office is considering changes that would relax security around electronic voting machines, making the already-vulnerable equipment more susceptible to hacking, opponents of the equipment and the draft rules said today. ”There’s nothing more important than election security,” said attorney Paul Hultin, who represented several voters in a 2006 lawsuit that sought to eliminate use of the machines in Colorado. ”It’s a step back.”

Richard Coolidge, public information officer for Secretary of State Scott Gessler, said the aim is to provide more guidance and clarity to county clerks, thereby creating more uniformity in how rules are applied. ”We’re trying to balance common sense, practical application with security on the other end,” Coolidge said. “We can do that without compromising any security.”

A public meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday to provide input on the proposed changes. Formal rulemaking has not yet started, but the meeting is a likely first step toward the rulemaking process, Coolidge said. Read More »

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