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.
Citizen Center, dedicated to transparency in government, was launched on Feb. 1. This is its first action as an advocacy group. It claims that the clerks of the six defendant counties and Secretary of State Scott Gessler have “conceded directly admitted using the system at issue. Two clerks, Sheila Reiner of Mesa County and Scott Doyle of Larimer County, have given PowerPoint presentations explaining how to locate particular ballots, using public figures such as county commissioners, state senators and state representatives, according to the complaint.
Secretary of State Gessler “has conceded directly to members of Citizen Center that his office is aware and has been aware since the 2010 election cycle that numerous county clerk and recorders in Colorado have adopted and implemented systems, practices, policies and procedures for the conduct of elections, including tracking reports, that allow voted ballots to be traced to specific voters,” the complaint states. “Gessler stated on November 30, 2011, that his office is considering rules or statutory changes to restrict the public’s access to reports that could be used to track a ballot to a specific voter. But Gessler and his office have no publicly announced plans to propose any rules or statutory changes that would prevent Colorado’s county clerk and recorders from continuing to compile and maintain information, including tracking reports, that permits the government to trace voted ballots to individual voters.”
Full Article: Courthouse News Service.