RE: County is planning to go ahead with non-secret ballots

Today’s Colorado Daily reports that the County is planning to go ahead with non-secret ballots.

This is an affront on the people and our right to anonymous voting.

This story shows how mean-spirited and insensitive this clerk and her staff are to the needs of the people and to the protections afforded the people by the laws of Colorado.

There is still time to act – this morning.

1. Get the Democratic Party to join the Republicans in supporting the secret ballot,

2. Get the Secretary of State to compel Boulder County to use the secret ballot option.

This must happen today.

As Dean Schooler said, the option for secret ballots (1) is in the contract, (2) requires no programming, (3) complies with the law, and (4) costs only $3,500.00.

Please get the Democratic Party to take action, now.

Please get the SOS to compel the county to use the secret ballot option, now.

http://www.coloradodaily.com/articles/2006/06/22/news/c_u_and_boulder/news4.txt

Party primary preparation

By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado Daily Staff Writer
Thursday, June 22, 2006 8:01 PM MDT

Boulder County election officials are busy preparing for the Aug. 8 political party primary elections, but not without the presence of some citizen opposition to parts of the process.

The county recently announced that voting system vendor Hart InterCivic will print the physical paper ballots to be used in 2006. The ballots will have bar codes and serial numbers printed on them, and county elections coordinator Josh Liss said Thursday that the county does not intend to have the codes printed on a perforated, removable ballot stub.

A group of county citizens filed a lawsuit against the county in 2004 over similar ballots, saying the non-removable markings on the ballot violate Article Seven, Section Eight of the Colorado Constitution. That section in short says no ballot shall be marked in a way in which it can be identified as “the ballot of the person casting it.”

District Court Judge Morris W. Sandstead, Jr., dismissed the 2004 case. Liss said Thursday that he hasn't heard of any planned challenge in 2006, but the county is legally prepared to fight a similar case, and he also said the bar codes are an “essential” component in the county's existing Hart voting system.

“Most importantly, the ballot secrecy is always maintained because there is no link whatsoever between the numbers and any particular voter,” said Liss. “The numbers also help during the resolution process. If election judges would like to look at the physical paper ballot, they can locate that ballot within a batch by serial number and look at it to determine voter intent.”

But Robert McGuire, the new chairman of the Boulder County Republicans, questions whether ballot secrecy is actually guaranteed.

“If it's permanently printed on the ballot, then it's certainly linked to the vote,” said McGuire. “If you're going to ensure integrity, then you must ensure that people get only one ballot. If there's an audit trail for handing out ballots to people that's sufficient to withstand scrutiny that only people who are entitled to vote are getting ballots, then it's a very small step to go from that process to identifying an individual voter.”

McGuire is an attorney and an adjunct professor teaching federal election law the University of Denver, but said he didn't follow the 2004 Boulder County case and hasn't yet heard of a planned citizen challenge in 2006.

Liss said Thursday morning that Hart had not yet printed the county's primary ballots, in part because it was not certain if the name of Marc Holtzman, a Republican running for governor of Colorado, would be on the ballot.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled later Thursday against a Holtzman appeal, and Holtzman will not be listed on the Boulder County primary ballot.

In fact, there won't be many contested races in Boulder County in the 2006 primary at all. County Democrats will choose between Clerk and Recorder candidates Linda Salas, the incumbent, and former Boulder County Democrats chair Hillary Hall.

Democrats living in State House District 13 will choose between candidates Claire Levy and Jim Rettew.

Also, former Boulder County GOP chair Marty Neilson will face off against engineer Barry Thoma in State Senate District 16.

Liss said non-registered voters must register by July 10 to vote in the primary. Voters must be also be affiliated with the proper political party to vote in a party's primary, but voters are legally allowed to switch affiliations within proper time frames.

Liss said affiliated voters must switch affiliations by July 10 to vote in another party's primary, while unaffiliated voters may switch before or up until Election Day. Citizens may also switch back to their former affiliation or lack of affiliation after the primary, and affiliation doesn't matter for voting in the November general election.

Boulder County must also keep its eye on at least one additional legal challenge. A citizen group of plaintiffs has filed a legal action against the Secretary of State and eight Colorado counties, including Boulder County, seeking to block the use of Direct Record Electronic (DRE) voting machines in 2006.

The county has completed a contract to use the Hart “eSlate” DRE as well as the paper ballots through Ballot Now in 2006, but Liss said county election staff and judges are currently training on the eSlate and will continue to do so unless the courts rule in favor of the plaintiffs.

Contact Richard Valenty about this story at (303) 443-6272 ext. 126 or valenty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx