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Boulder has a very
interesting Clerk’s race coming up in the August primary. Boulder County is largely
populated by Unaffiliated voters. We also have the largest contingent of 3rd
party voters of any county in the area. Libertarians who have run for office in
the past have found favor in as much a 22% of the vote even though Libertarians
only represent 0.3% of the 160,000 voters in our county. Indeed Boulder is
exceptional in the well-populated metro area counties, as it’s Unaffiliated
voters represent nearly 40% of the voting population. Why are these facts so
important? The issue here is to decide who can best represent the voters of
Boulder County. In the running we have two Democrats: the incumbent, Linda
Salas; and her challenger, Hillary Hall. Incumbent Salas has been
in office for the past four years, during which there have been many
well-publicized bumps in the road, and these bumps have all had to do with
elections. Challenger Hall is the
former chair of the Democratic Party of Boulder County, and member of the
Elections Review Committee that has been highly critical of the operations of
the elections division controlled by incumbent Salas. The ERC was a
multi-partisan team of individuals selected by the commissioners of Boulder
County to find the reason(s) that it took 63 hours to tally the 2004 general
election. In addition it was the mission of the ERC to make recommendations to prevent
such an event in the future. After six months of investigative work and a
concise 45-page report, Clerk Salas chose to respond with a 29 pages in which
most of the work of the ERC was discounted as uninformed. Hillary Hall spent a good
deal of her time working on the Planning, Staffing & Education section of
the ERC report. As was evident in the general election of 2005, Clerk Salas was
more interested in suppressing the media and activists than in rectifying the
issues presented by the ERC and the concerns of the voters. Confusion and legal
challenges reigned. Members of all parties, minor and major, and the
Unaffiliated have questioned the present Clerk’s goals. Hillary Hall’s goals have
been clear from the outset. Good planning; skilled and well trained staffing;
and an educated voting population. Elections, like the other
duties of the Clerk, are in need of someone with strong leadership skills and
above all – a strong understanding of computer technology. Hillary is no
stranger to these requirements. Hillary has over 20 years of management
experience in the private and public sectors. Professionally she employs the
types of technologies that our Clerk should be able to understand and manage.
As for leadership: Hillary has served on boards for academic, public policy,
and social issues organizations. Hillary received more than 69% of the votes at the Democratic Party
Caucus in April. She has the support of six of the nine former members of the
ERC including people not of her own party. You can find out more about Hillary
by visiting www.hillaryhall.com Unaffiliated voters may
vote in the Primary Election on Tuesday August 8th, by simply
declaring their affiliation at the polls and asking for a Democratic ballot.
This is not well known, as Clerk Salas hasn’t worked that hard to inform voters
of this fact. It is a state law. While I am a Libertarian I have no doubt that we will all be
well served with Hillary Hall as Clerk & Recorder of Boulder County. I urge
you to vote for Hillary Hall for Boulder County Clerk & Recorder in the
August Primary Election. Paul Tiger -- Longmont |