[EL] A dissenting opinion on the Colorado absentee controversy

Tue Oct 11 13:18:07 PDT 2011

I wanted to clarify a few things and provide more information about the
inactive fail to vote issue in Colorado last week:

In Colorado, counties can choose to conduct their election by mail in
certain elections (nonpartisan non-general elections and primary
elections*).  In these elections voters automatically receive ballots in
the mail from their county clerks.  There is no requirement to have
polling places or for voters to request ballots. The controversy was
over whether or not 'inactive fail to vote' voters could receive those
ballots.  Colorado law requires ballots be mailed to 'active' registered
electors (Section 1-7.5-107(3)(a)(I), C.R.S.).  

Inactive fail to vote voters are eligible voters who missed 1 general
election and did not respond to a post card or other notice.  There are
other categories of inactive voters in Colorado, such as inactive bad
address; these voters are not at issue, and do not receive ballots
unless they proactively update their registration.

Based on the court decision last Friday a number of counties in addition
to Denver are now mailing to inactive fail to vote voters, including
Mesa (mailing to military IFTV only), Pitkin, Boulder and Pueblo (all
inactive FTV).

For more information and court filings:
www.commoncause.org/co/inactivevoterlitigation 

Recent news:

More Counties Sending Ballots to Inactive Voters

http://www.chieftain.com/news/metro/more-counties-sending-ballots-to-ina
ctive-voters/article_b1c436e4-f3c0-11e0-bff4-001cc4c002e0.html

PitCo Mail-In Election to Include Inactives

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/149550 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-brater/a-win-for-voters-is-gessl_
b_1003759.html 

*Primary elections do require counties to mail to inactive fail to vote
voters, and to set up a minimum number of voter service centers for in
person voting.

Jenny Flanagan

Colorado Common Cause

jflanagan at commoncause.org 

303-292-2163

-----Original Message-----

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Bev
Harris

Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2011 12:39 PM

To: law-election at UCI.EDU

Subject: [EL] A dissenting opinion on the Colorado absentee controversy

A controversy erupted in two Colorado counties this past week (Pueblo
and Denver

counties) regarding their desire to mail absentee ballots automatically
to

voters who are inactive, who had not requested a ballot, nor responded
to a

mailing asking them if they wanted one.

The counties wanted to mail ballots to the inactive voters, the Colorado

secretary of state tried to block the mailings; courts ruled to allow
the

mailings to go out.

The media hype was framed in terms of prohibiting inactive military
voters from

casting ballots, but the real controversy was generic -- the counties
wanted to

send unrequested ballots to everyone on an opt-in list, almost all of
the

voters actually not military, and not even overseas or out of state.

So let's be clear: the prime risk for wholesale election fraud with
absentee

voting systems is insiders exploiting known inactives, casting votes in
their

names.

For this reason, no-fault absentee is high risk, but opt-in or permanent
or

forced absentee is reckless.

What I would look for as a symptom in a location about to commit insider

absentee fraud is aggressive balloting to (or in the name of) voters
known to

be inactive. Contrary to the prefab talking point that it's necessary to
push

unasked-for ballots out to known inactive voters on a wholesale basis to
make

it "easier to vote", this is actually helping insiders commit identity
theft to

cast votes FOR those they know are unlikely to vote for themselves. That

enables massive disenfranchisement for valid voters who cast honest
ballots.

There is a mitigation for this, but the Colorado Clerks Association is
doing its

best to block that, too. Recently they announced that no open records
requests

would be honored around election time.

First: permanent absentee systems are reckless and fraud-inviting.

Second: Using permanent absentee systems to push ballots out to inactive
voters

exacerbates the fraud potential

Third: The only real mitigation is public examination of the list of who
can

vote and who did vote. By blocking public access to those records,
Colorado

Clerks in Pueblo and Denver counties are taking sole power over the
election,

with no ability for the public to see or authenticate the most essential

components.

IF the public has prompt access to the records, by obtaining the voter
list

(which should be marked by active and inactive) and the participating
voter

list (which should contain method of voting, such as at polls,
absentee), it

might be possible to determine whether insiders or the real voter had
cast the

vote.

This is what I recommend for Colorado citizens and political parties,
LITIGATING

if necessary to obtain the necessary prompt access to crucial records.

Now, I realize that the Democratic political position favors permanent
absentee

and pushing ballots out to inactives. But I think we have to question
this: Why

are proponents not also demanding the necessary transparency measures
needed to

mitigate fraud? Instead, not a peep of protest about the clerks position
to

block all open records requests for election records (including voter
lists and

who the ballots were sent to, and who chose to vote these inactive
ballots).

I hope the public and political candidates will demand prompt access to
these

records.

Bev Harris

Founder - Black Box Voting

http://www.blackboxvoting.org

* * * * *

Government is the servant of the people, and not the master of them. The

people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the
right

to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for
them to

know. We insist on remaining informed so that we may retain control over
the

instruments of government we have created.

Black Box Voting is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501c(3) elections watchdog
group

funded entirely by citizen donations.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html

Black Box Voting

330 SW 43rd St Suite K

PMB 547

Renton WA 98057

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