Tag: Mike Coffman
Purged voters can cast provisional ballots in Colorado
Voting rights advocates entered into a shaky truce late Wednesday with Secretary of State Mike Coffman's office over his allegedly illegal purge of 30,000 voters in Colorado.
The Advancement Project, a national voter protection group, filed suit against Coffman late last week to force the secretary to reinstate the voters and halt any new purges. Coffman's removals included people who moved, inactive citizens, and newly registered individuals whose voter cards bounced back to county clerks. The Advancement Project claimed that Coffman's removals violated the National Voter Registration Act because they occurred within 90 days of a federal election. Coffman denied any wrongdoing.
Adams County ‘quarantines’ machine that switched candidate’s vote
An electronic voting machine in Adams County repeatedly failed to accept a vote for a Democratic state Senate candidate — instead registering the vote for her Republican opponent — at an early voting site last week and has been removed from service, the Aurora Sentinel reports Wednesday. Adams County Clerk and Recorder Karen Long told the newspaper the error doesn't reflect wider problems in the county's voting systems, but the candidate said the incident could lead to a lawsuit.
Alert issued over ‘vote flipping’ electronic voting machines
As if Colorado voters didn’t have enough to worry about, an alert has been issued over a high incidence of “vote-flipping” occurring on some IVotronic machines, in which voters touch the screen for their presidential candidate, only to watch the machine switches their vote to some other guy.
Attorney General supports Secretary of State on “check box” registrations
Attorney General John Suthers weighed in on Colorado's contentious voter registration issue yesterday, saying that Secretary of State Mike Coffman was correct in ordering counties to reject incomplete registration forms with the so-called "check box" problem, according to the Denver Post.
Colorado election snafu roundup: Clerks resort to robocalls to fix bad...
The clock is ticking down until Colorado's big day. And with the John McCain campaign all but pulling out of the state as Barack Obama pushes forward, the result of the November election in Colorado may be coming into focus.
Unfortunately, when it comes to election administration in Colorado, things are getting muddier and muddier by the day. In our election bungle roundup last week, we guided you through the week's most important news: national groups slamming Secretary of State Mike Coffman on his voter registration policy, Attorney General John Suthers backing Coffman in his recent voter purge, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink further disenfranchising student voters, and more. Read on to for the latest foul-ups:
Effort helps eligible Colorado inmates vote from jail
Hundreds of thousands of Colorado voters are sending their mail-in ballots back to county clerks this week, and among them are several dozen jail inmates who successfully registered to vote this year.
The Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition recently launched a vigorous vote-from-jail campaign. And while some counties have been more receptive than others, in Denver alone the number of voting inmates quadrupled from 20 people in 2004 to 80 this year.
Counties get creative on ‘check box’ flaw on voter registration applications
With Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman unwilling to budge on incomplete voter registrations, several counties across the state have come up with partial resolutions on their own.
The ever-evolving "check box" drama has to do with the state's new voter registration form. Applicants without a state ID or a driver's license must indicate as much by checking a box and then giving the last four digits of their social security numbers. But at least 6,700 new would-be voters--and as many as 10,000 by one estimate — neglected to check the box. Several thousand of these individuals have since cured their applications, but many more remain barred from voter rolls.
An avalanche of mail-in ballots in Colorado. But who’s counting?
Tracking election data in Colorado is kind of like approaching a water mirage on a long car trip. Just when you think you've reached that shimmery puddle of water on the highway, it disappears. One minute, The New York Times reports that 1.4 million of the state's registered voters have requested mail-in ballots, and then, within a matter of days the number ups to 1.5 million. It's enough to make a journalist (or anyone else who tracks this stuff) go crazy and start using overblown, flowery metaphors.
Eng cable ad dings Coffman
Newcomer Hank Eng is waging a long-shot, shoestring campaign against Secretary of State Mike Coffman, who emerged the winner in a four-way GOP primary for retiring Rep. Tom Tancredo's staunchly Republican 6th Congressional District seat. Facing those long odds, Eng will launch a cable ad Saturday morning with what looks like a $20,000 buy — roughly 10 percent what Coffman is spending over the same period, not counting the Republican's commercials on broadcast TV. The spot light-heartedly attempts to paint Coffman's troubled tenure as Secretary of State as a reason to consider the little-known Democrat.
Read more of Jeff's commentaries: • Joe Biden's patriotic teeth: A gleaming beacon of hope • Obama wins youth vote
Colorado election snafu roundup: Are we ready for Nov. 4?
It's not just you. Colorado is looking a bit iffy these days in terms of election preparedness. And with less than three weeks to go until November 4th, things just keep getting stickier. But wading through the constantly breaking election muck can be a less than savory experience. So please, put away your wellies and let the Colorado Independent guide you. Each Friday until Election Day, we'll publish a roundup of the week's big news related to election bungles around the state. If you've got news or opinions to share, please add them in the comments section below. After all, we're not as scientific as, say, Colorado's new electronic voting machines. Read on for the roundup: