Better voting is aim of Colorado election panel

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 10, 2008 at 3:54 p.m.
Updated November 10, 2008 at 3:54 p.m.

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Work is already under way to prepare for the next election just a week after the last one.

The 11-member Election Reform Commission will meet for the first time Wednesday morning to begin identifying ways to improve future elections in Colorado.

The commission, established by a state law passed in the spring, is charged with making recommendations to the legislature by March.

Here's what the major interest groups are expected to request:

County clerks: They have long wanted mandatory mail voting and have more ammunition this time around: mail voting more than doubled since 2004. They'll also ask to streamline laws and regulations about voter registration and approval of voting machines.

Voting activists: A group of local citizens filed suit in 2006 to block electronic voting because of concerns about security and accuracy. This group will renew the call to limit electronic voting in favor of paper ballots. They're also planning to ask for stronger audits of e-voting equipment.

Voting rights groups: Oorganizations, including Colorado Common Cause, are concerned about how voters are purged from the rolls, confusing instructions on voter applications and the use of provisional ballots.

Voters: Volunteers for political campaigns and voter registration drives saw a variety of problems with voter sign-ups and many instances where voters asked for mail ballots and didn't get them. One Obama campaign volunteer, Alice Atkins, of Golden, wants to see confusing language on voter forms cleared up, better rules to ensure voter lists are accurate, and to change election so they're not controlled by partisan officials.

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