Can we keep a secret? Column by Jack Johnson annotated by Harvie Branscomb and Marilyn Marks

There are many misunderstandings projected by Jack Johnson’s column below.  Citizens are accustomed to being lied to or misled in the newspaper, but in this case, the misunderstandings are stacked upon a context of consistent misinformation put forth from a variety of sources that ought to be dependable and credible, but may not be. What is so aggravating about this column is that it comes at a time when people like me are trying to dissect the facts out of the usual mudslinging to propose legislation to implement what Colorado's constitution actually calls for – anonymous ballots.  I hope our legislators are reading Jack’s column not just with a grain of salt, but with a whole box of it.  

Black text is published text by Jack Johnson (former Pitkin County Commissioner, candidate for Aspen City Council, May 2009, as printed in a column in the Aspen Daily News). I have applied strikeout on the defective portions that I would not have included in the column, if I were writing it. (Harvie Branscomb)

Red text in brackets [] is by Marilyn Marks ( candidate for Mayor, May 2009)

Blue text in brackets [] is by Harvie Branscomb (Colorado Voter Group, Coloradans For Voting Integrity)

Can we keep a secret?

Aspen Daily News Staff Report - (wrong- this is actually a regular bi-weekly column by Jack Johnson)

Friday, November 18, 2011

Election law is complex. It is also important. Marks v. Koch seeks to overturn a century’s worth of election law and should be reviewed by the Colorado Supreme Court.

[The election law has not been overturned in any way. The Open Records Law, which has been in place for over 40 years and which allows ballots to be public records, has merely been upheld. It is modeled after the same open records law that permitted the Bush/Gore ballots or the Coleman/Franken ballots to be reviewed by the press and public to reach their own conclusions.]     No elected or appointed official in Aspen invented Colorado election law or the secret ballot. They are only charged — for our benefit and upon our behalf — with interpreting and implementing it. Average citizens, the press and even loud-mouthed local public policy columnists all very much take the “secret ballot” for granted. We have forgotten, if we ever knew, how hard it was to win the right to such because much of the intellectual thought regarding election law and the right to a secret ballot was settled in the 19th century.

[Actually “secret” ballots were allowed until 1947, and Colorado ballots were traceable if an official peeked at the concealed ballot number on the voted ballot. Before 1947, three election officials with separate keys had to collaborate to open the ballot box. They could then remove ballots stuffed by ineligible voters or fraudulent officials by checking the identities of the ballots using the printed numbers. That’s not what we now (misleadingly) call the “secret ballot,” but there was a requirement to keep ballots as secret as possible using a glass ballot box and three keys. “Secrets” to be shared with and by election officials are subject to abuse. So, in 1947, the constitution was changed to guarantee that ballots are anonymous and the officials could obtain no “secrets” about how we vote. Believe it or not, that is what we now call the “secret ballot” or “Australian ballot.” The only “secret” is your privacy in the act of voting the anonymous ballot. The contents of ballots are no longer “secret” as that was a dangerous proposition. You can perhaps begin to understand how poor a term the phrase “secret ballot” is. It is utterly and essentially confusing. And that confusion is particularly rampant in Aspen. That’s a confusion that is not at all remedied by Jack’s confused opinion. ]