Secretary of State Bernie Buescher Monday night told the Colorado Independent he was way ahead of his Republican critics on what needed to happen in Colorado to comply with a new federal law dictating the speed of mailing overseas ballots to members of the military, but lawmakers dragged their feet because of election-year politics.
As of today, the American Constitution Party has no candidate for governor in Colorado. Original nominee Ben Goss filed a notice to withdraw from the race with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office yesterday and the party has yet…
DENVER – Secretary of State Bernie Buescher and Attorney General John Suthers Thursday announced they’re teaming up fight a new form of impersonation: business identity theft. Both officials explained the decade-old Secretary of State’s business filing system, which has no password or PIN protections, has been exploited criminals changing contact names of at least 25 companies in Colorado, allowing the perpetrators to create and use those companies’ lines of credit and steal more than $750,000.
DENVER – Secretary of State Bernie Buescher Thursday issued a statement in response to “speculation related to the gubernatorial candidates running in the Republican primary.” That speculation stems from reports that elements of the Colorado Republican Party are trying…
Despite claims by Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis on his facebook page that he’s staying in the race in the wake of plagiarism allegations, the Colorado Democratic Party Thursday was gunning hard for his primary opponent, Evergreen businessman…
Clear the Bench, a group campaigning to replace Colorado Supreme Court Justices, took what looks like bad advice from Secretary of State staffers last spring when it decided to file with the state as an issue committee rather than as a political action committee. The distinction may sound esoteric but it’s exactly the distinction Colorado citizens voted into place in 2004 with Amendment 27 because they believed it could head off the kind of corruption that can swing legal rulings that affect everyday issues– the safety of drinking water, for example, the outlines of labor rights, the frequency of tax hikes.
Clear the Bench Colorado, a group seeking to replace Supreme Court justices at the ballot this November, was advised by Secretary of State Bernie Buescher’s office to register last spring as an issues committee even though the group originally filed as a political action committee, according to documents obtained by the Colorado Independent. Clear the Bench last week was the subject of a complaint filed by Colorado Ethics Watch, which is arguing that the organization is mis-categorized and, as a result, can collect unlimited funds in its effort to target the justices. It’s a reality that works against the specific wishes of Colorado citizens who voted to restrict the flow of money into judicial elections to limit the chance for corruption, according to Ethics Watch.
Voters in Colorado care about clean elections and voted through a ballot initiative specifically to enact laws governing campaign finances in 2002. Lawbreakers have been caught and fined. But that’s apparently where enforcement ends. The list of groups violating the law includes an increasing number that simply skirt the fines judges have levied against them. Secretary of State Bernie Buescher now seems determined to go after the deadbeats, but his office told the Colorado Independent that the law, as it stands now, simply lacks teeth.
Louis Schroeder came to the State Capitol on Friday to attend a review hearing on a ballot initiative he authored that aims to radically reduce Colorado property taxes. Schroeder and four staff members from the government’s Legislative Council and Legal Services offices sat around a long table in a narrow room for more than an hour, considering a 10-page report staffers had prepared on various legal points.
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.
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