Tag: Election Protection

The New York Times has caught up to the fact that, among other election-related hot-buttons, Colorado has become a poster-child for the mail-in voting movement. According to an article this week, around 1.4 million of the state's 3.2 million voters have requested a mail-in ballot thus far — compared to only 668,000 mail-in wannabes in 2004. Voters still have until October 28 to request mail-in ballots.

It's not just you. Colorado is looking a bit iffy these days in terms of election preparedness. And with less than three weeks to go until November 4th, things just keep getting stickier. But wading through the constantly breaking election muck can be a less than savory experience. So please, put away your wellies and let the Colorado Independent guide you. Each Friday until Election Day, we'll publish a roundup of the week's big news related to election bungles around the state. If you've got news or opinions to share, please add them in the comments section below. After all, we're not as scientific as, say, Colorado's new electronic voting machines. Read on for the roundup:

For weeks, the election season mantra in Colorado has been “vote by mail.” But that advice may cause some problems down the line, when new voters with incomplete registrations don’t receive their ballots. Governor Bill Ritter and several county clerks have consistently urged people to vote by mail this year, a practice thought to alleviate long lines at the polling places on Election Day. As of last week, more than 1.3 million voters in the state had requested mail-in ballots.

Six organizations, including several that conducted voter registration drives in minority communities, have joined the cry for Secretary of State Mike Coffman to accept incomplete voter registrations.

An ominous-sounding letter that El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink sent to a journalism student at Colorado College has reignited a three-week old controversy over his past erroneous assertion that out-of-state college students are not eligible to vote in Colorado.

The long-standing rumor that mail-in ballots missing postage will be chucked or returned to the sender turns out to be, well, a rumor.

John McCain’s attempt to magnify allegations of voter registration fraud could mitigate the impact of a Barack Obama victory and deter black Democrats from turning out to vote in future elections.

Denver’s Election Director, Mike Scarpello, says he is concerned about the possibility that thousands of people will come to the polls on Nov. 4 and find that they are not registered to vote. And he’s looking for a way to fix the problem.

The Barack Obama team deflected Republican claims that the candidate is affiliated with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) during a press call this afternoon.

A national group that registered tens of thousands of new voters in Colorado is under fire in several states for using fake names to sign up voters. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has been charged with dropping off at least 10,000 invalid voter applications in a dozen states, according to news reports. But ACORN officials say that GOP operatives — and John McCain in specific — are fanning nonexistent flames. And while the group's Colorado operations are in the clear, it was mischaracterized as "under investigation today" by Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave during a debate last week with Democratic challenger Betsy Markey.