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Secretary of state stands by registration check-box policy

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 22, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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The standoff over a controversial check box on voter registration forms continues between Secretary of State Mike Coffman and election officials in Larimer and Jefferson counties.

A conference call Tuesday among Coffman's office, the state attorney general's office and Jeffco and Larimer election officials failed to produce agreement.Coffman believes those officials are violating the law; they argue they're following other laws and that he's nitpicking.

Coffman is expected to send a letter to all county clerks today instructing them to follow his policy.

The argument is over a small box in the ID section of the voter registration form.

Applicants are supposed to write down their driver's license or state ID number. If they don't have either one, they are supposed to check a box, and then supply at least the last four digits of their Social Security number.

In the past, election workers flagged people who didn't check the box and asked them to show ID before voting.

That's how Jefferson and Larimer counties are handling the issue.

But since December, Coffman has instructed county clerks to list these applications as incomplete and contact applicants to get them to check the box. If the person doesn't do that, he or she can only cast a provisional ballot at the polls. Those ballots require additional paperwork to be accepted and are added to the count after Election Day.

More than 5,600 voter forms are in limbo because of this issue, Coffman's office said.

National and local voter rights groups have criticized Coffman's policy and say it violates federal law. Coffman disagrees.

The attorney general's office has not officially weighed in, although a spokesman said Coffman's policy appears to be legally sound.

But Josh Liss, deputy of elections in Jefferson County, doesn't see it that way.

"We have acted on the side of the voter in this case and we are not willing to potentially disenfranchise the voters in Jefferson County over a technicality," he said.

Coffman is sticking to his position. "It is absolutely essential that election law be uniformly applied to every voter across this state and anything less than the equal treatment of all voters compromises Colorado's ability to hold fair elections," he said.

Larimer County Clerk and Recorder Scott Doyle said he thinks that no one broke the law. "I for one think it much more important to move to seek remedy/solution on this so we can all move forward positively for the voters of Colorado."

Comments

  • October 22, 2008

    9:58 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    RTrenary writes:

    The County Clerks are holding the line for what is right and just in the face of CD-6 Candidate Coffman's questionable policy. This year's election controversy is increasingly looking like valid charges of radicals in the GOP deliberately using technicalities and irrational procedural hoops to deny eligible citizens the right and opportunity to vote.

    The contemporary "voter fraud" cries of the GOP are a manufactured issue with the sole purpose of suppressing likely Democratic voters. There is no problem other than the radical conservatives seeing their political clout wither with each succeeding election. The facts of the miniscule number of REAL cases of Federal and State voter fraud charges and convictions in recent history defy the hysteria of the GOP.

    Doyle and Liss are providing leadership and good public policy for all of Colorado. Too bad that there is some other influence keeping Mike Coffman from recognizing, and acting on, that good example. Maybe it is too much for him to run for Congress and be responsible for a fair election.