CO HB 1296 Killed by Local Government Committee

["Joe Pezzillo" <jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm sorry to have to report this, folks, but the SoS, Clerks and 
Corporate Vendors have defeated the people this time around. Rep 
Madden's HB1296 was killed in committee this afternoon.

First the bill was weakened by an amendment moved by Rep Weddig (D) to 
remove the Shultheis Amendment which enforced paper ballots. That 
narrowly passed 6-5.

Then by a 9-2 vote, the entire bill was "PI'd" (tabled indefinitely) by 
the Local Government committee on a motion by Rep Berry (R) of Mesa 
County. While it may be better that the weak bill died than be passed, 
it's shameful that the strong bill did not move forward as the people 
wanted.

I've been asked by an Elections Official how many people we think we 
really represent. We learned this morning that TrueMajority's Colorado 
members tried to send 2,700 faxes to the Secretary of State, who this 
afternoon told me that she'd shut the machine off after about 200, 
calling it "malicious." I guess she's not used to hearing from so many 
people and that must be why she mistakenly confused the people's voice 
wanting to participate with something she shouldn't have to pay 
attention to!

We're certainly not done with this issue, and you can see the kind of 
strong opposition to Trustworthy Elections that our so-called 
representatives have even in the face of clear and overwhelming public 
support (they obviously received quite a few e-mails of support for our 
position on this issue since the Chairman mentioned it). The message is 
clear to us from the people who are supposed to be guarding Our 
Democracy, "ignore the people on this issue, they don't know what 
they're talking about, just trust whatever we tell you" which may be 
fine for Clerks to say to each other, but should be an outrage to 
citizens.

I'll follow-up with more info once I have it, but we're going to 
participate in a state wide press conference this week regarding this, 
and I hope that all of you will attend our meeting this Wednesday 2/25 
at the Boulder Library Branch in Table Mesa where we'll be discussing 
the statewide issue with folks from the state group Coloradans for 
Voting Integrity, as well as looking at what's happening in Boulder 
County.

I'm sorry we couldn't have won this battle for you, too, but we're just 
going to have to work that much harder and smarter to protect the vote, 
clearly our representatives cannot be trusted to do it for us. Don't 
hesitate to use the same contact information sent out on Friday to let 
the representatives know how you feel about their failure to protect 
the vote in Colorado.

Please contact me directly if you want any additional info, otherwise, 
I'll expect that the list will shortly have it's own commentary on 
this.

Joe