The Campaign for a Healthy Denver said today it is “outraged” that voters most affected by a lack of paid sick days could be prevented from voting on Initiative 300, a measure to allow all Denver voters to earn sick leave.
“Denver’s inactive voters – disproportionately lower-income, Latino and African American voters – could be excluded from receiving mail-in ballots for the November 1 election if Secretary of State’s Scott Gessler’s lawsuit against Denver City Clerk Debra Johnson is successful. A recent study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research show these are the workers least likely to have paid sick days,” said a release issued by the campaign today.
“Workers without paid sick days are the voters most likely to face barriers to voting if Secretary Gessler has his way,” said Grace López Ramírez, Mi Familia Vota Colorado State Director and spokesperson for the Campaign for a Healthy Denver. “The idea that voters with the most at stake would not have an opportunity to have their voices heard runs counter to everything we Americans believe about democracy.”
The Campaign for a Healthy Denver is not alone in its dissatisfaction with Gessler’s lawsuit, which seems to pick up new defendants and new critics by the day.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow dedicated a significant segment of her show to the issue earlier this week.
