-Aspen's historic May 5, 2009 IRV election audited as single ballots- 5/5/09 Aspen CO held an instant runoff election (IRV) for mayor and 2 council members. Interpreted contents of each ballot, scanned by True Ballot, were publicly released. Open records requests for a CD of image scans were denied. Aspen has been sued to protect records from destruction and to allow inspection of the scanned ballot files. A Court of Appeals ruling holds that unidentifiable ballots are public records.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Aspen's appeal to hide voted ballots from the public: action and reaction

This group of letters about ballot transparency from Nov. 12 to Nov. 16, 2011 starts with a letter by a national hero of election transparency, Mitch Trachtenberg. Mitch is one of the founders of the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project (humetp.mitchtrachtenberg.com).

In a cooperative effort between election officials and citizen activists, Humboldt County California has published ballot scans on-line for at least 5 elections with very positive results that include the discovery of a serious bug in Diebold GEMS software that had not been publicized. This is one of many examples of cases where citizen activism and oversight have improved elections practice.

See also Mitzi Rapkin's pitch on behalf of the City of Aspen for keeping ballots secret. This column lacks credibility in several areas and deserves an annotated version that will I hope be coming soon.

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Aspen Daily News
Make ballot publication an election standard
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Letter to Editor by Mitch Trachtenberg, Trinidad CA


Keeping votes private and counts accurate




Aspen Times
Boiling down the ballots (letter same as above in Aspen Times)
Letter to Editor by Torre, Aspen City Council member Nov. 16, 2011
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20111116/LETTER/111119895/1020






Why the city is appealing ballot viewing decision

by Mitzi Rapkin, Aspen Daily News Columnist (City of Aspen staffer responsible for communications)

City fighting a 
losing ballot battle

by Maurice Emmer, Aspen Daily News Columnist

State: Marilyn Marks owes more than $55,000 in taxes

(this article is not related to elections, but is probably in part motivated by disrespect for Marilyn Marks' citizen activism on behalf of election quality )

by Chad Abraham, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Real Aspen blog:

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