The legislation that could either modernize, economize and simplify the state’s election system — or open it up to voter fraud, depending on who you believe — is expected to go to the floor of the state House of Representatives for a vote Thursday.
The so-called Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act passed out of its second House committee this week early Wednesday morning. The Appropriations Committee gave it an 8-4 approval on a party-line vote. The House’s State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee gave it a 7-4 party line vote Monday night. Though backers have called it a bipartisan bill, so far it’s yet to pick up a single Republican vote or any endorsement from GOP lawmakers or organizations.
Bipartisanship, however, is a fact, at least at the local level. The bill was prompted by a letter to all legislators last November from the Colorado County Clerks Association, which includes lots of Republicans. The executive director of the association is Donetta Davidson, Colorado’s Republican secretary of state from 1999 to 2005, who was nominated to a federal elections advisory panel by President George W. Bush. She’s no Boulder liberal.
In the statehouse, allegiance to the legislation has two distinct colors — red and blue. The bill is sponsored by Dickey Lee Hullinghorst of Boulder, who happens to be the House majority leader. The co-sponsor is Dan Pabon of Denver, the assistant majority leader. That’s too much blue to wish away.
If these colors remain true after arms are twisted before a House vote, the bill is destined to pass, given 38 Democrats and 27 Republicans in the chamber. And assuming it passes the House, it would bounce to the Senate, where Democrats enjoy a 20 to 15 edge. Then it’s on to the desk of the Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, presumably to become law.
On the losing end of the math, Republicans are crying foul. “If Democrats truly believed that this bill was about fair elections rather than partisan advantage, they would have followed precedent and worked across the aisle. Instead, they brought union bosses, party lawyers and liberal activists to the table,” Colorado Republican Committee Chairman Ryan Call said in a statement.
Colorado voters, however, might be just the tip of the iceberg we’re seeing, and that merits a closer look by the GOP. Hullinghorst told The Denver Post editorial board Monday that she thinks the “uniquely Colorado” bill could be a road map for other states, and if she’s right, that could have implications for both parties coast to coast.
Republicans, led by Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Colorado’s scrappy chief elections official, say the bill has many problems, but primarily Election Day registration would create opportunities for fraud. Democrats counter that a well-connected state database shared by all counties would prevent people from voting twice. Perhaps so.
A few members of the public, during committee testimony Monday night, however, urged stripping away the Election Day registration and agreeing on the expansion of mail ballots, which 74 percent of Colorado voters elected to use last November. The law that survives would provide mails ballots to everyone, including inactive voters, but those who still prefer to vote in person could show up for early voting at local vote centers.