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Voting bill advances

Paper-ballot plan clears committee despite opposition

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 6, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

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A paper-voting proposal cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday, despite stiff opposition from county clerks and Secretary of State Mike Coffman.

A Senate committee unanimously approved Senate Bill 189, which calls for voters statewide to cast paper ballots at polling places but also would allow those who ask to use electronic voting machines.

The measure now moves to an appropriations committee to hammer out costs.

Lawmakers and Gov. Bill Ritter's chief legal counsel said that an earlier $15 million cost estimate by the Colorado County Clerks Association was inflated.

"I think people saw Santa Claus coming," said Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver.

Trey Rogers, Ritter's lawyer, said he estimates that SB 189 would cost $5.2 million to $5.4 million. He said the clerks' figures include costs not tied to the bill and costs for buying scores of polling place scanners rather than a handful of machines that count ballots at central sites.

The bill would allocate $3.5 million from the state general fund to cover costs. Rogers said another $300,000 would come out of the secretary of state's cash fund. He said the remaining $1.4 million to $1.6 million could be paid out of federal election funds, Coffman's budget or by the counties.

Clerks association president Nancy Amick lashed out at what she called a "fiscal dress- down."

"I'm very disappointed that the governor's office has basically attacked the clerks on their statement of the resources they need to run the elections effectively," she said. "I take issue with them telling clerks how they can conduct their elections."

Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, said he is working to find ways to reduce costs and make the proposal workable for clerks.

"We don't want to have an unfunded mandate," he said.

The bill was changed so that it no longer would force counties to pay return postage for mail ballots, an estimated savings of $1.3 million, according to the bill's fiscal analysis.

Clerks want to kill SB 189 and use their own systems, which in some large counties means all electronic voting machines. Ritter and legislative leaders created SB 189 because of concerns about the reliability of electronic voting equipment.