These inactive fail to voter voters are eligible to vote and can vote in person or by requesting a ballot be sent to them.

They cannot be removed from the voter rolls if made inactive for failure to vote.  If any mailing is returned to the county as undeliverable, then they can be set down the path for cancellation (notice and missing 2 subsequent general elections).

Colorado voters who miss one general election become inactive ‘fail to vote.’  You can also become inactive in Colorado because of a ‘bad address’ or because a ballot was returned as undeliverable. See  CRS 1-2-605

 

In 2009 Colorado passed a law allowing counties to run their election by ‘all mail’ during the Primary, this is the first partisan election counties can choose to conduct by all mail ballot.   In the Primary, counties are required to mail ballots to active and inactive ‘fail to vote’ voters.   The Primary model also requires counties to set up voter ‘service centers’ which allow voters to obtain ballots, replacement ballots, vote on accessible voting machines, update their address, and any other need they may have. 

 

2009 legislation: http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2009a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/6139E92F4E9035DA87257537001A3EFB?Open&file=1015_enr.pdf

 

There is a big push by our County Clerks Association to move all Colorado elections to exclusive vote by mail elections. Legislative efforts to adopt exclusive vote by mail have been defeated since 2004.  We also expect an effort to eliminate the requirement to mail ballots to inactive ‘fail to vote’ voters in the Primary, and agree it would be a dangerous precedent that would then be followed if Colorado adopts exclusive vote by mail for all elections.

 

Jenny Flanagan
Colorado Common Cause

303-292-2163

 

From: election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu [mailto:election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Rob Richie
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 11:36 AM
To: Election Law
Subject: [EL] Query about all-mail election only sending ballots automatically to "active"voters (e.g, voted in 2010)

 

Folks,

 

I had a query that to me seems quite important, given the combination of many jurisdictions moving to all-mail elections and tight budgets leading to trying to run our democracy on the cheap.

 

We recently were tracking city elections that took place this month in Fort Collins, Colorado. Fort Collins is a city with a population close to 150,000. It holds city elections in April of each odd year. Since 1995, it has done all-mail elections. It mails ballots to all city residents who are "active voters," as defined by Larimer County. 

 

To be an active voter, you need to have voted in the last general elections (in this case, last November), registered between that election and March 7th or responded to a mailing from the county after the last general election.While you can request a ballot in person if you don't get one in the mail, that's rather onerous- - and apparently only 14 people did it this year after ballots were mailed March 18.

 

What is striking to me is that this has a clear impact on the electorate and was wondering if this raised any alarm bells for those on the listserv. The city clerk was pleased that the list was clean, as only about 3,000 ballots came back as undeliverable,but one can assume that at least some 2008 presidential voters who skipped the midterms (as about one in three do nationally) might have voted if they received a ballot in the mail. This seems to me a dangerous precedent, but perhaps one we'll see more often applied in vote-by-mail elections with costs associated with printing and mailing ballots .

 

To get a sense of the different universe of voters in different elections, see below.

 

- Rob Richie, FairVote

 

FORT COLLINS ELECTIONS

 

* 2011 elections (after midterm elections):  62,260 voters, 28, 093 ballots cast [open seat for mayor won with 46%]

 

* 2009 elections (after 2008 prez race): 80,250 active voters, 25,169 ballots cast [incumbent mayor wins with 68%]

 

* 2007 elections (after lower turnout midterm): 56,898 active voters, 21,164 ballots cast [incumbent mayor wins with 82%]

 

* 2005 elections (after prez race): 72,477 active voters, 31,498 ballots cast [open seat for mayor won with 47%]

 

* 2003 elections (after midterms): 50,738 active voters, 26,010 ballots cast [ incumbent mayor wins with 58%]

*

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Respect for Every Vote and Every Voice"

Rob Richie
Executive Director

FairVote  
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 610
Takoma Park, MD 20912
www.fairvote.org  rr@fairvote.org
(301) 270-4616

Please support FairVote through action and tax-deductible donations -- see http://fairvote.org/donate. For federal employees, please consider  a gift to us through the Combined Federal Campaign (FairVote's  CFC number is 10132.) Thank you!

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