Tag: voter suppression

In the wake of the motion issued by Judge Brian Whitney in Gessler v. Johnson, Scott Gessler, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and State Rep. Crisanta Duran, D-Denver all issued statements. Gessler said Friday's decision was merely "the first salvo".

Denver District Judge Brian Whitney today ruled against Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, saying Denver County may send ballots to inactive voters.

It is rare that a Colorado Secretary of State makes the news. Correction: It used to be rare. Scott Gessler has a gift for drawing attention to himself and his office. This week, he's been featured on Rachel Maddow's national television show, written about in The Wall Street Journal and editorialized against in The Boulder Daily Camera.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow skewered Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler last night, relying heavily on the work of the Colorado Independent's John Tomasic in a report titled "Things to Sue in Denver When You're Suppressing Votes."

Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert "Bo" Ortiz will comply with Secretary of State Scott Gessler's order not to send ballots to soldiers out of state who are legally registered Pueblo County voters but who failed to cast ballots in 2010. The news came Friday afternoon in a carefully worded release that came after hours of deliberation.

Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler made national news this week by filing a lawsuit to stop Denver County, and by extension all Colorado counties, from mailing ballots to the state's "inactive" voters. The case drew the attention of voter-rights defender US Reps Charles Gonzalez of Texas and Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, who wrote a letter asking the justice department to investigate. The congressional letter (embedded below) is just the latest alarmed response to Gessler's lawsuit, which has featured howls from the local and national press, complaints from voter activist groups and legal push-back from Denver and Pueblo county election officials. At the eye of the storm, Gessler communications staff has been mostly hunkered down and silent on the matter, spokesperson Rich Coolidge surfacing at last today in a Texas newspaper to dismiss the congressional concerns as political gamesmanship.

Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert Ortiz is pained by the idea that his office would fail to send an election ballot to even one of county soldier serving in the US Military overseas. He sent a letter Tuesday to Secretary of State Scott Gessler seeking an express prohibition "in writing " on sending ballots to soldiers overseas who are legally registered but inactive voters.

In filing suit yesterday against Denver County over its 2011 election plan, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler has raised the specter for the second time since he took office in January that he is using his position as head of elections not to expand but to suppress voting in the state.

Voter photo identification proposals in 32 states, including Colorado, are the product of a coordinated effort by conservatives to reduce polling place turnout by minority groups, who turned out in unprecedented numbers during the 2008 presidential election, a progressive civil rights organization alleges in a new report.

Progressive election reform advocates and campaign watchdog groups are leery of Republican attorney Scott Gessler’s agenda as Colorado’s secretary of state elect. Observers cite a variety of reasons to be concerned about what changes he’ll try to make over the next few years. “It’s clear that there was an effort to put somebody into this seat who is going to be a real activist in support of corporate secret funding of elections and voter suppression,” Luis Toro, director of Colorado Ethics Watch, told the Colorado Independent.