Colorado could change the way America votes, but first the Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act has to make its way through the Colorado statehouse. And that’s going to be a tall order. The ground-breaking proposal would send mail ballots to every voter, allow Election Day registration and put all the counties on a real-time statewide database that supporters say would weed out cheaters who try to vote twice.
The bill cleared its first legislative hurdle Monday evening when it passed the House’s State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee by a 7-4 party line vote, after more than seven and a half hours of testimony from dozens of public officials and otherwise private individuals on each side. it now moves to the House appropriations committee.
Opponents say the change isn’t needed for a state with strong voter participation, while it increases the chances of voter fraud. Same-day registration won’t provide enough time to weed out cheaters, say Republicans aligned against the bill, including Secretary of State Scott Gessler.
Those promoting the changes said the bill is uniquely Colorado, and the state could take the lead nationally on making elections more convenient to voters. They are confident other states will follow — because voters like mail voting (74 percent in Colorado last November), while preserving in-person voting at a few early voting centers, and, eventually, saving millions of dollars for counties.
“We’ve managed to, I believe, put together a bill that I think is a model for the nation,” Rep. Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, one of the bill’s sponsors, told The Denver Post editorial board before Monday afternoon’s hearing.
Garett Reppenhagen of Colorado Springs, the Rocky Mountain West coordinator for the Vet Voice Foundation, said service members need as many options to register and vote as possible. He said military members fight for the right to vote, and increasing access is an important goal.
“if you vote for this bill you will be honoring the service of those who put on the uniform and made the decision to serve,” he told the committee.
Jim August of Longmont said he was a poll watcher in Boulder County last year. He doubts an all-mail system would improve integrity of elections. “I observed many problems with the mail-balloting system,” he told the committee.
Several speakers said mail-balloting is a good idea, but it should be severed from the controversial Election Day registration.
Wayne Williamns, the El Paso County clerk and recorder, said he quit the Colorado County Clerks Association at the end of 2012, partly because the organization backed the bill. “This strips neighborhood voting from the citizens of the state,” he said of mail ballots.
Gessler, the state’s chief election official, spoke in staunch opposition of the bill. He noted that his office was not directly involved in drafting the legislation. He chafed at supporters’ description of the plan as bipartisan, because of the involvement of some Republican county clerks.
“This is a flawed bill, and it’s an example of bad government,” he said, adding there was no real effort to consult those, like himself, who have opposing views. No Republicans in the statehouse were involved, he said, just Democrats.
“This has big costs,” Gessler said of the proposal, calling the costs estimated by backers as skewed and woefully short of reality.
The secretary of state drew a long round of applause from Republicans in the audience after he finished his opening remarks.
Williams said it would cost his office nearly $700,000. “This is not a good bill,” he said. “It’s an open door to fraud, and it’s going to cost taxpayers money,” he said.
Other clerks, though, said switching to mail will mean buying less equipment to operate and maintain for a ever-shrinking number of people who still vote in person. That could save millions of dollars in some county over a longer period of time. Denver expects to save a total of about $730,000 in next year’s general election alone, director of elections Amber McReyholds said.
Gessler said clerks are cooking the savings numbers. “These numbers are, frankly, suspect, should I say,” he told the committee. Gessler said clerks are counting all the cost of replacing equipment upfront, rather than factoring it over time; those won’t be ongoing savings. He said a study of operating costs for all-mail ballot system indicated it would save a maximum of 26 percent, before adding in the costs of setting up vote centers and other mechanisms for the new system, such as the ever-increasing price of postage.
“I haven’t read it closely,” Gessler said of the proposal. “I’ve had to limit my reading to non-fiction lately.”
This post originally misattributed a quote to Donetta Davidson, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association.