Tag: Election Protection

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 case of the absent ballots is over. A Denver mail facility reportedly received a batch of about 18,000 mail-in ballots on Monday that had previously gone unaccounted for. But while Denver's mail-in voters can rest easy with their ballots on the way, they'll have to scramble to get them in on time.

With a lengthy state ballot and expected lines at the polls, Denver officials say they are working to make sure that on Election Day every voting precinct in the city has at least one bilingual poll worker to assist those who may not speak English. There is a specific emphasis on Spanish speakers.

On Saturday, the Advancement Project, a national voter protection organization, filed suit against Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman for his alleged illegal purge of tens of thousands of voters across the state.

Planning to take on your civic responsibility and vote this year? Good choice. But where should you go? What if something goes wrong at the polling booth? What the heck is Referendum O? And did you manage to get your new registration in on time? Answers to all of these questions, and more, can be found in this handy how-to guide on making your voice heard.

Read more of Jeff's commentaries: • A handicapped cabinet: Running a presidential slate is a bad idea • Obama leaving campaign trail to visit ailing grandmother • Is Colorado patriotic enough for Palin?

Several political groups came together on the Auraria Campus in Denver on Wednesday to encourage students to vote early. The one notable exception was the campus Republicans who, although they agreed to co-sponsor the event, never showed. Organizer hope that several activities, including the march and a blowout party on Election Day, will help turn out the student vote. View the audio-video gallery of the march and rally below.

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.

Tracking election data in Colorado is kind of like approaching a water mirage on a long car trip. Just when you think you've reached that shimmery puddle of water on the highway, it disappears. One minute, The New York Times reports that 1.4 million of the state's registered voters have requested mail-in ballots, and then, within a matter of days the number ups to 1.5 million. It's enough to make a journalist (or anyone else who tracks this stuff) go crazy and start using overblown, flowery metaphors.

Colorado kicks off two-weeks of early voting today with elections officials strongly encouraging residents to take advantage of anticipated shorter lines and, hopefully, less confusion than what is expected on Nov. 4. But unless you've got elections expert Sen. Ken Gordon as your wingman going into the polls, what's a voter to do?

Homeless people who registered to vote in Colorado risk being ejected from voter rolls if they don't pick up a confirmation letter sent by their county clerk. The problem has less to do with partisan politics than with the nature of homelessness and the complexities of life without a permanent address. In any case, advocates estimate only about half of homeless people cast their vote.