Before last fall’s election, Colorado’s new mail-ballot election system was viewed with suspicion in conservative media channels as rife for corruption, inconvenience and higher costs.
But one-third of the way through the legislative session that has more Republicans in the House and a new GOP-controlled Senate, little has been proposed to remedy those concerns.
The 2013 law provided a mail ballot to every registered voter, including those formerly considered inactive because they hadn’t cast a ballot in a while.
A report by the Colorado Voter Access and Modernized Elections Commission that examined the new law’s performance is due Tuesday, but it isn’t expected to cite major flaws or offer significant proposals for change, according to commission members.
House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder, sponsored the bill two years ago and said she’s pleased but not surprised that Republicans who opposed it then aren’t trying to unwind it now.
“The vindication of the law was the election itself,” she said. “There were very few problems that I’ve heard of, voter turnout was up, and the voters and county clerks seemed to be pleased with the experience.”
58% “very satisfied”
A Pew Charitable Trust survey last month indicated 58 percent of voters were “very satisfied” and 37 percent “satisfied.” Only 4 percent indicated they were “dissatisfied.”
There was an increase of more than 12 percent in voter participation over the 2010 general election turnout.
The law passed in 2013 without a single Republican vote in the statehouse, but the GOP scored big wins last fall.
Secretary of State Wayne Williams, the former El Paso County clerk and recorder, opposed the law in 2013. He remains a skeptic, although a cautious one.
“The concerns are still there, but we have to address them in a deliberate way,” he said.
His office is collaborating on a proposed bill to beef up signature verification, although one Republican-backed bill to take a closer look at signatures died in a House committee Feb. 4.
Former Secretary of State Scott Gessler was the lead critic of the law, and he remains unconvinced it’s safe and cost-effective. But he said Thursday he’s no longer on the front lines to defeat it.
“It’s not my fight anymore,” he said.
Questions about cost
Last week, the state House approved a $405,000 budget boost for the secretary of state’s office to reimburse counties for the November election. Rep. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, told the chamber the extra cost was partly related to the new law.
The County Clerks Association called foul. Its president, Tiffany Lee Parker, the clerk and recorder in La Plata County and a Republican, said the extra money was not linked to performance but a standing reimbursement formula based on each county’s registered voters.
The secretary of state’s office said the cost was created by doing away with the inactive voters classification under the mail-ballot law, swelling the ranks of voters that had to be accounted for in the formula.
Parker said the claim that mail ballots cost more overall hasn’t been the case. Her election costs went from about $120,000 before the law to about $73,000 after.
The association soon will start a statewide survey of election costs, she said.
The association was disappointed to see a bill by Rep. Jack Tate, R-Centennial, die in House committee on a party-line vote Jan. 26. The proposal would have allowed counties to provide a polling center for every 75,000 registered voters instead of each 30,000.
Tate thought the House Democrats would support the bill, because they pushed the law that reduced in-person voting. A nonpartisan legislative analysis estimated the legislation would save $770,000 across the state for each general election.
“That’s a pretty significant cost savings just to brush aside,” he said. “That shouldn’t be about party politics.”
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch
