The Colorado bill HB11-1219, Concerning the “Uniform Military and Overseas Voting Act” is nearing the end of its legislative journey, and will most likely come before the full Senate tomorrow for “2nd reading”.
We sent you CFVI Brief 4 on this bill earlier, and now, on very short notice, send you as an attachment CFVI Brief 4.1, which we left on Senators’ Chamber desks this morning (and which is similar to what we sent before)..
We still advocate the two amendments we discussed earlier:
AMENDMENT #1: TO PROHIBIT THE ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION OF VOTED BALLOTS
and
AMENDMENT #2: THE BILL’S “COVERED VOTERS” SHOULD INCLUDE ONLY ABSENT UNIFORMED SERVICE PERSONNEL, AS OPPOSED TO ALL MILITARY PERSONNEL.
(“Absent” Uniformed Service Personnel are those residing outside the U.S. state where they are registered to vote, including overseas.)
An amendment which passed in the Senate State...Affairs Committee, and will be voted on in 2nd reading, allows returning voted ballots by email under some conditions. This amendment is a leap backwards for election integrity, since it permits a highly insecure method of return of voted ballots, even if only under some conditions.
We are opposed to this provision because it will be tricky to administer, thus inviting lawsuits in close elections; and will allow hacking of votes, especially because HB11-1219 as currently written will allow many more voters to vote this way than are permitted under current Colorado law!
There is more information related to these two amendments in the attached CFVI Brief.
IF YOU POSSIBLY CAN, PLEASE TELL YOUR SENATOR THAT YOU SUPPORT
THESE TWO AMENDMENTS.
As far as we know, your message will be most useful if received before 9AM tomorrow (Tuesday, April 26th).
Thanks!
Margit Johansson, Coloradans for Voting Integrity (CFVI)
P.S. For Senator's phone and email information, see:
http://www.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2011A/csl.nsf/DirectorySen?openframeset
P.P.S For a copy of the Reengrossed version of HB1219, see:
Attachment:
HB1219 AmendNoElecTransVB 4-24-11_me_b.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document