Early voter numbers released this morning by the Colorado secretary of state’s office bring good news for Democrats. The lead notched by registered Republicans dipped a point over the weekend to 38 percent of all votes cast so far in the state. Registered Democrats stayed even at 36 percent and unaffiliated voters gained two points to hit 25 percent.
Gov. John Hickenlooper today issued an emergency disaster declaration for the Indian Gulch Fire in Jefferson County, authorizing $1.5 million in state funding to help pay firefighting costs. The executive order also directs the state to seek federal funds if needed to fight the tenacious wind-blown wildfire near Golden.
Environmentalists and local politicians Friday cheered a Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety order late Thursday directing Denver-based Cotter Corp. to begin curtailing drinking water contamination from an inactive Jefferson County uranium mine this summer.
In the debate surrounding Colorado’s famously loose ballot initiative system, the so-called impound initiatives introduced repeatedly in local municipalities over the past three years might serve as a test case. This year, they have been introduced in Denver and two of its suburbs, Aurora and Lakewood. The proposed laws would require police to seize the vehicles of every unlicensed driver they stop.
But the initiatives aren’t primarily about keeping the roads safe and the man behind them doesn’t live in Denver, Aurora or Lakewood. As many know by now, the man behind the initiatives is Daniel Hayes. He lives in unincorporated Jefferson County and his initiatives are a weapon in his personal battle against illegal immigrants.
Denver County Clerk and Recorder Stephanie O’Malley has defied Secretary of State Mike Coffman by devising a plan to let some voters with incomplete registrations fix their forms and vote regular ballots on Election Day.
Barack Obama is “firmly ahead” in the hard-fought contest for Colorado’s nine electoral votes, polling 53 percent to John McCain’s 45 percent, according to a Politico/Insider Advantage poll released Tuesday night. Obama and McCain, however, are statistically tied in bellwether Jefferson County — unchanged since two weeks ago — the poll found.
Attorney General John Suthers weighed in on Colorado’s contentious voter registration issue yesterday, saying that Secretary of State Mike Coffman was correct in ordering counties to reject incomplete registration forms with the so-called “check box” problem, according to the Denver Post.
The clock is ticking down until Colorado’s big day. And with the John McCain campaign all but pulling out of the state as Barack Obama pushes forward, the result of the November election in Colorado may be coming into focus.
Unfortunately, when it comes to election administration in Colorado, things are getting muddier and muddier by the day. In our election bungle roundup last week, we guided you through the week’s most important news: national groups slamming Secretary of State Mike Coffman on his voter registration policy, Attorney General John Suthers backing Coffman in his recent voter purge, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink further disenfranchising student voters, and more. Read on to for the latest foul-ups:
With Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman unwilling to budge on incomplete voter registrations, several counties across the state have come up with partial resolutions on their own.
The ever-evolving “check box” drama has to do with the state’s new voter registration form. Applicants without a state ID or a driver’s license must indicate as much by checking a box and then giving the last four digits of their social security numbers. But at least 6,700 new would-be voters–and as many as 10,000 by one estimate — neglected to check the box. Several thousand of these individuals have since cured their applications, but many more remain barred from voter rolls.
Frank Moya, a former reporter with the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post, and longtime criminal defense attorney in Denver, has a guest editorial about the death of Larry Manzanares that is published in today’s Post.
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