The Colorado County Clerks Association today unleashed a litany of complaints on Secretary of State Scott Gessler, pointing to a “cumbersome list of issues” with his office.In a letter from Executive Director Donetta Davidson, the clerks’ association called for greater cooperation. Gessler, a Republican, was not available for comment, but a spokesman Andrew Cole, defended the office. “The items that they (clerks) are complaining about have all been meant to and have increased voter registration to the highest level ever in Colorado and have made it easier for military voters to vote than ever before,” Cole said.
The clerks’ concerns included an August emergency rule requiring repeated numbering on ballots for certain kinds of voting machines that did not fully address how counties are to print the ballots. Counties now are scrambling to figure out what to do, the letter said. A statewide voter registration mailing sent by Gessler’s office without input from the clerks, a mailing which had “data matching errors for thousands of voters,” the letter said. This was part of a large-scale voter registration drive that Cole said helped register a record number of voters. A change to the statewide online voter registration system that automatically transferred voter information to a voter registration database but caused confusion for counties trying to square their records with the system.
Full Article: Colorado county clerks blast Gessler for “errors and oversights” – The Denver Post.