The battle of the yard sign rages on: Chair of the El Paso County Democratic party Christy Le Lait is pissed that signs across town promoting their guy in the 5th – Maj. Gen. Irv Halter – have been stolen, vandalized and replaced in the last week. Republican County Commission candidate Peggy Littleton, whose signs have allegedly sprung up in their place, says she’s got nothing to do with it. “If anybody’s signs are being removed or slashed, it’s mine,” she told the Gazette.
If you’re like most people, voting on whether to retain district and county judges is a mysterious game which is why the slightly more diligent among us turn to the Colorado Judicial Review Commission for its periodic reports on judicial performance. The recommendations it makes are based on surveys taken by attorneys, witnesses and jurors who grade the judges on various categories, spanning the professional and the personal. Data analysis by a Durango Herald editor and reporter shows that attorneys consistently give female judges disproportionately lower rankings than their male counterparts. Though there are currently no studies on this specific application, Project Implicit – a nonprofit collaborative network of researchers studying social cognition – says this trend could be attributed to an implicit gender bias held by Colorado attorneys. So just keep that in mind while you try to be an informed voter.
The Navajo Nation’s presidential election has officially been postponed amid an ongoing legal dispute over the eligibility of one of the candidates based on his contested fluency in the Navajo language. At the heart of the story lies questions about the role of language in Navajo culture and who gets to decide what qualifies someone as proficient in it. Via the Durango Herald.
A majority of Republicans and American Constitutional party members on Pueblo’s election canvassing board is skeptical about the reliability of the county’s vote-reading machine – the Optech 400-C – even after state inspectors and outside consultants insisted it works just fine. Via the Pueblo Chieftain.
In Colorado’s first all mail-in election cycle, roughly 40 percent of ballots have already been cast ahead of election day. Campaigns and get-out-the-vote groups will use their resources wisely over the next few days by targeting just the remaining procrastinators. Via the Daily Camera.
One prolific 16-year-old volunteer from Broomfield made 1,693 phone calls on behalf of Rep. Mike Coffman during a ten-hour shift a few weeks ago. Talk about ground game hustle. Via the Denver Post.
In the Halloween spirit or just plain over-the-line? A campaign mailer targeting incumbent Republican Marcia Neal in the 3rd CD State Board of Ed. race is dripping with blood… Some think the violent imagery is a bit much, but director Jen Walmer of Democrats for Education Reform – the group that financed the mailers – explained that it’s not blood, it’s simply the “red hue of partisanship.” Via the Denver Post.
In non-election news, nobody was “poisoned” by pot this Halloween. Highly suggestible parents are now open to new suggestions for what to fear next as Colorado’s legalization experiment moves ever onward. Via NBC 9News.
[ Halter photo excerpt via KDVR. ]
