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Ritter plan promotes paper ballots

Proposal intended to restore trust in voting system

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 24, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

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Gov. Bill Ritter and legislative leaders announced a plan Wednesday to have voters statewide cast paper ballots at polling sites for this year's primary and general elections.

The proposal would dramatically change how elections are conducted and was intended to put Colorado on firm footing after more than a month of election planning chaos.

Voter activist groups called the plan a major step toward trustworthy elections in Colorado.

But county clerks who have been pushing for all-mail elections said Ritter's proposal will cause long lines on Election Day, require counties to spend millions on machines to count paper ballots, and create potentially insurmountable administrative hurdles.

Mesa County Clerk Janice Rich called it a "train wreck."

"It's going to be one of those 'I told you so' chaotic November elections," Rich said. "The last thing I ever wanted was for us to be Florida 2008. It very well could (happen.)"

Ritter said the state must provide elections that are fair, reliable, transparent and convenient for voters. He also said the government must restore public confidence in the voting system.

"Paper ballots are a tried-and- true election method that has worked for decades," the governor said.

The proposal would apply only to 2008 elections.

High-priority legislation

Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, said the proposed system is the best way to maximize voter turnout. Lawmakers also must help clerks address logistical challenges, he said.

The proposal is yet to be written into a bill. In fact, Ritter and legislative leaders finalized the concept Wednesday morning, only hours before the afternoon news conference at the state Capitol.

The bill will be sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver; House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder; and Balmer. Key details, including who will pay for potential extra costs, haven't been decided.

Lawmakers asked Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, to sign on, but he said he hasn't decided whether to sponsor the measure.

McElhany said the decision to adopt paper precinct voting was made by a process of elimination.

"All the other systems have bigger problems."

He said the proposal may not be an easy sell in the legislature.

He's already getting "push- back" from some Republican lawmakers who prefer mail voting.

Even with disagreement, the measure will get high priority, McElhany said.

"It's something that needs to be resolved right away."

Ritter and his chief legal counsel, Trey Rogers, have been working on the proposal for the past several weeks. Their involvement shifted the plan away from all-mail voting, which Gordon favored.

All-mail voting was eliminated because of concerns that poor, minority and new voters would be disenfranchised.

Statewide uniformity

If approved by lawmakers, the bill would significantly alter how elections are conducted.

First, it would create a uniform voting method across the state. Until now, counties chose their own systems. Some used paper ballots at precinct voting places. Others used electronic voting machines at precincts or at vote centers.

Second, the plan would move the state away from electronic voting. Since 2002, counties have increasingly used electronic equipment to comply with a new federal law requiring systems that disabled voters can use.

Electronic voting has fallen out of favor since the Dec. 17 announcement by Secretary of State Mike Coffman that voting and tallying machines used in all but 12 counties were unfit for use because of accuracy and security flaws.

The Colorado County Clerks Association has been pushing for mandatory mail voting, arguing that a mail system is the one they can best administer.

They say mail elections would minimize any potential problems with a new statewide voter registration database, which hasn't been used yet in statewide polling place elections.

But some county clerks, including Denver's Stephanie O'Malley and El Paso's Bob Balink, haven't supported mandatory mail voting. And lawmakers Wednesday said the disagreement among clerks was one reason why they didn't choose all-mail voting.

Douglas County Clerk Jack Arrowsmith said clerks and lawmakers are approaching the issue from different viewpoints.

"We're trying to figure out how to hold an effective, efficient election process, based on what we know about the process," he said. "The decisions that the legislature and the governor are making are based more on political reasons."

Coffman, a Republican, initially said he didn't like mail voting and preferred voting on paper ballots at precincts. But last week, he said he would support the clerks' push for mail voting.

Coffman said in a written statement Wednesday that he will help clerks prepare for whatever system is chosen and to make sure, "that it's the best election it can possibly be."

Activists hail proposal

The proposal would not affect current voting options, such as early, absentee, and the new option to become a permanent mail voter.

Gordon encouraged voters to cast ballots before Election Day so "they don't have to take a chance that there will be long lines on Election Day."

Local activist groups who don't trust electronic voting machines hailed Ritter's announcement.

"This is a huge victory for the citizens of Colorado because this will give us more transparency and accountability in our elections," activist Claudia Kuhns said.

Kuhns worked on a lawsuit filed in 2006 challenging the use of electronic voting machines. That suit spurred Coffman's review of electronic voting machines and the widespread decertification.

The new proposal does not, however, eliminate machines from elections.

Federal law requires that electronic voting machines be available for disabled voters.

The plan also would require counties to use machines to count the paper ballots. Coffman decertified scanning and tallying devices used in 49 counties.

Manufacturers and local election officials have appealed.

kimm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2361

What's next

Lawmakers are drafting a bill spelling out the proposal. It is expected to be introduced in the Senate on Friday or next week.

HB 1155, which would give Secretary of State Mike Coffman greater flexibility to recertify electronic voting equipment for 2008 elections, is scheduled to be debated in the Senate state affairs committee Friday morning. It already has passed the House.

Coffman will hold public hearings on appeals of his decertification of electronic voting equipment. About 50 counties and the manufacturers of the machines want Coffman to rescind his ban, arguing that the decertifications were made in error. The hearings have not yet been scheduled.

Voting methods

If you want to vote by mail, you still can. You can request to become a permanent mail voter by filling out an application and submitting it to your county election office. You also can vote absentee even if you're not going to be out of state on election day.

Electronic voting machines also will be available for early voting and on election day for disabled voters and those who want to cast electronic ballots.

But the primary system, if Gov. Bill Ritter's plan becomes law, will be marking paper ballots at a polling place and then having those ballots tallied there with optical scanners.

Comments

  • January 23, 2008

    3:46 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Diff writes:

    Wow! Electronic, Mail In, and Machine Voting are just more ways the vote can too easily be manipulated and subverted or at least have the appearance of having been manipulated.

    Our votes and counting our vote should be above reproach!

    A hand marked paper ballot is a better more sure way to insure this.
    Ritter, seems I am coming to question you leadershilp as governor more and more, and I voted for you .. but may not come any re-election.

  • January 23, 2008

    3:55 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Diff writes:

    >>The plan was debated during the past several weeks in closed-door discussions between legislative leaders and Ritter's office in an effort to bring certainty to how Coloradans will cast their ballots and how their votes will be counted in a presidential election that is expected to draw record turnout.<<

    Closed door talks?!?! - lends itself to just what I was talking about regarding our votes counting and not being tampered with and always make me wary and worry-some!

    I think also the old "follow the money" rule needs to apply here. Just who are the companies making the machines and selling the software etc, and who's arms are being twisted and who's pockets are getting padded as a result?
    People of Colorado!
    > > >STAND UP FOR YOU MOST PRECIOUS RIGHT, and MAKE IT COUNT< < <
    Voting is a right and a privigledge that needs to be protected from even the possibility of any tampering!
    PAPPER BALLOTS; hand marked and hand counted help to do just that!

  • January 23, 2008

    3:57 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Diff writes:

    Big D, you miss-understood me -- I want the paper trail!

  • January 23, 2008

    4:44 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Art writes:

    If the database for registered voters is an issue then mail-in ballots are certainly not the way to go. They would bypass the registration procedure entirely. They are obviously subject to many more methods of manipulation than any other form of voting. I am somewhat surprised that Ritter and his cronies are moving toward the paper ballots but it is a hopeful sign.

  • January 23, 2008

    7:57 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Cabermon writes:

    I SEE DEAD PEOPLE---- VOTING! Remember Chicago in 1960 where the revered dead helped elect John F. Kennedy to be the 35th president?

    1) We need photographic ID for voting. To paraphrase the Miranda Warning, "If you do not have an ID, the government will provide one for you at no cost."
    2) Mail-in voting just begs to be defrauded. Paper ballots with automatic readers (scanners) have been used successfully up here in the styx of Larimer County for many years.
    3) We also have had great success with voting centers, the key being to have enough of them to prevent the Metro area's horrific lines of 2006. Do some arithmetic, Denver Voting Commissioners: Act like professionsals!

  • January 23, 2008

    10:09 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jacka writes:

    Wow, what's the cost?

  • January 24, 2008

    1:15 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    FrankInAurora writes:

    It is amazing how you can't even talk about voting methods without the victims of Bush Derangement Syndrome making it political.

    So, according to Big_D, the GOP must have manipulated ballots in Ohio in 2004 because the results didn't agree with the exit polls? It couldn't be that maybe the exit polls were wrong? Hey, Big_D, why even bother to vote? We could just have a bunch of people show up at the polls on election day and then conduct an exit poll to determine the winners!

  • January 24, 2008

    2:42 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rickg19611 writes:

    What a bunch of lying hypocrites. Just weeks ago, the Secretary of State said that electronic voting machines are not a viable option and the media, Democrat sleazemongers (aka CO Democrat Party chair), and a handful of BBS morons went berserk with outrage. They said he was crazy, demanded he resign, and used the usual attacks, all to no avail.

    Now Ritter says the EXACT SAME THING.... and what is the response of those same hypocrites? Silence.

    Only the low IQ crowd is unable to see and admit the hypocrisy of them.