(fwd) Gazette letters to the editor - April city election

[Ralph Shnelvar <ralphs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Friends:

You all know my opposition to mail-in and/or absentee ballots.

Ralph



On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 10:44:29 -0600, "Dr. Charles E. Corry" <ccorry@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Intended for publication
     There has been a good deal of discussion of the low turnout for 
the April 5 city election but none, that I'm aware of, of the basic 
question of why did Colorado Springs have a separate election? The 
county, the state, and the nation all managed to have a very 
successful election last November with a local turnout of 67% of 
registered voters. Why does the City of Colorado Springs feel it must 
hold separate and very costly elections in April of odd years where 
only 15-30% of eligible voters turnout?
      In view of Mr. Heimlicher's recent comments in the Gazette, it 
should be noted that after the 
<http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-59.htm>many irregularities in the 
April 2003 mail in election Mayor Rivera made a public pledge never 
to conduct another mail in election so long as he held office. I 
might also point out that on 
<http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33999~2779061,00.html>March 
24th the Denver Post found that election fraud was currently being 
investigated in at least 47 of 64 counties in Colorado, including El 
Paso.  Virtually all of this fraud is associated directly or 
indirectly with absentee/mail in ballots. Evidence clearly 
demonstrates that we can have honest elections, or we can have 
absentee/mail in elections, but we can't have both at the same time.
      As having special elections with very low turnout is also a 
well-known method of manipulating elections, one might reasonably 
question Mr. Heimlicher's motives for wanting to combine a mail-in 
election with a separate city election?
      Honesty and integrity are the basic components of a democratic 
election. Elected officials must be fundamentally concerned with 
preserving those components even if some potential voters are 
slightly inconvenienced. Mr. Heimlicher, in particular, seems to 
favor moving in exactly the opposite direction.
Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.
President, Equal Justice Foundation
-- 
Equal Justice Foundation http://www.ejfi.org/
455 Bear Creek Road
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906-5820
Telephone: (719) 520-1089
Home page: http://corry.ws
Curriculum vitae:
http://www.marquiswhoswho.net/charleselmocorry/Default.aspx