Provocative bill to take Colorado to a universal mail-in ballot will not be introduced

Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Buescher speaking to the newly appointed Best Practices and Vision Commission just announced that the 69 page bill being prepared for late introduction to take the state to a universal mail-in ballot with "service centers" and election day registration will not be introduced this year.  The Best Practices group (citizens, clerks, legislators and representatives of parties) will consider this among other issues. It's first meeting was today.  One of the interesting revelations of the first discussion was to note that most municipalities do not check signatures on mail-in ballots (and are not required to do so).

The following press release (after the break)  from the Colorado Secretary of State is misleading. It offers a false alternative- between "touch screens in polling centers" and "mail ballots fed through high speed scanners".  Neither of these is technically necessary in a traditional polling place counted election. In fact both of these are the same two limited choices that would have been forced on voters as a result of the "Modernization Bill" that will not be introduced this year.  The real choice (still available to many voters in Colorado) is between paper ballots counted in precinct polling places using reliable paper poll books, and on the other hand vote centers or service centers dependent on electronic pollbooks and functional networks and high tech centralized facilities for counting paper ballots requiring moving ballots to where they are counted (either from precincts or by mail).

The conversation about mail ballots has not exposed the deleterious effects it has on citizen oversight. Too often the discussion is framed in a promotional manner.

The Secretary of State did express a set of goals for the Best Practices and Vision Commission that features accuracy high on the list and does not mention convenience or cost.  If he meant to place convenience and cost at a lower priority than accuracy of counting and eligibility then I compliment him on setting goals properly.  Watch the Secretary of State's website for audio recordings from these meetings: www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/pressrel/PR20100319Members.htm

Letter from the Colorado Secretary of State concerning ballot transparency

[The following is a letter from the Colorado Secretary of State concerning the use of serial numbers on ballots and ballot image accessibility to the public. The yellow annotation is by H. Branscomb to focus on the ballot image transparency issue.  The letter to the editor in the Aspen Daily News linked here is based on the following letter from the Secretary.  http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/letter-editor/138940 ]

The original pdf of the Secretary's letter is here: Buescher to Kolwicz