Election Law @ Moritz

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Edward B. Foley
Free & Fair is a collection of writings by Edward B. Foley, one of the nation's preeminent experts on election law.

State-by-State Coverage (Colorado)

Recent News & Analysis

Below are the most recent Colorado News & Analysis posts. See All Colorado News & Analysis

11/4/08
CO Common Cause Says Voting OK

According to this report, the executive director of Colorado Common Cause says that voting in the state went fine.  However, she did say that some counties had issued a great number of provisional ballots.  In 2006, Colorado had one of the higher provisional voting rates in the nation. [Read More]

11/4/08
Colorado Spanish-speaking voters protest the lack of bilingual pollworkers at vote centers

Spanish-speaking voters are protesting today over too few bilingual poll workers at voting centers in Weld County Colorado.  The voters allege that of the 11 vote centers in the city, only 2 are staffed with bilingual poll workers and both require a vehicle to reach them.  County officials assured non-profit groups before the election that 5 of the vote centers would be staffed with bilingual workers.  [Read More]

11/3/08
Sequoia failed to deliver 18,000 absentee ballots to Colorado

Sequoia insisted to Denver County officials that it had shipped all of the absentee ballots the county ordered, but county officials recently discovered that the company failed to ship 18,000 ballots.  See the Wired news story here.  At least one voter did not receive his ballot, after twice requesting one, until it was too late to cast it.  The man had already left town by the time the ballot arrived at his house. 

11/1/08
Colorado Secretary of State ordered again to stop purging voters

Colorado Secretary of State  Mike Coffman has been ordered once more to stop purging voters.  On Wednesday, the Secretary was ordered to restore voters to the rolls but he removed more voters after that order.  Wednesday's settlement requires the purged voters to still cast a provisional ballot but, those ballots will enjoy a presumption of validity, and may only be discounted by clear and convincing evidence of ineligibility.  See Major Pending Cases case page here, Lawsuit Tracker page here. [Read More]

10/31/08
Thousands of CO Absentees Could Have ID Problems

The Denver Post reports that Colorado election officials are warning that approximately 35,000 first-time mail-in registrants who have requested absentee ballots were not matched in the state's voter registration database and therefore need to send in a photocopy of ID with their mail-in ballots.  However, there seems to be confusion amongst voters as to this requirement, and many of them may not be sending in the appropriate ID.  Administrators have indicated they will treat these ballots as provisional ballots. [Read More]

Recent Commentary

Below are the most recent Colorado Commentaries. See All Colorado Commentaries

10/28/08
Unanimous Decision in McCain v. Obama (hypothetical)

The specially structured 3-Justice Court has released its unanimous decision in the McCain v. Obama simulated adjudication.  The Court ruled that the political question doctrine was inapplicable in the context of the particular case and thus did not deprive the Court of jurisdiction to consider the Equal Protection and Article II questions presented.  On the merits, the Court rejected both the Equal Protection and Article II challenges to the (hypothetical) Colorado Supreme Court decision. 

This unanimous decision stands as a model for how “the rule of law” can operate in highly polarized election cases.

10/9/08
Purges & Provisional Ballots

5/20/08
A November Hypothetical

As part of the final exam for my Election Law students this spring, I created a hypothetical scenario involving a 2008 variation on the theme of Bush v. Gore. I picked Colorado as a possible swing state in a general presidential election between Senators McCain and Obama. With a Republican Secretary of State and a state supreme court dominated by Democrats, it has the potential for a political conflict comparable to the one between Katherine Harris and the Florida Supreme Court in 2000. And as the New York Times noted last week, Colorado conceivably could be the decisive state in achieving an Electoral College victory.

Recent News Stories

Below are the most recent Colorado News Stories. See All Colorado News Stories

11/6/09
Colorado ranks high in its effort to count military ballots

Colorado ranks in the top five states for its military and overseas voting policies. In fact, the state needs to make only one minor tweak to comply with the provisions of the federal Military Overseas Voting Empowerment Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law on Oct. 28.

8/23/09
City of Denver let ex-cons work during Nov. 2008 election

This is not a story about the restoration of felon voting rights, which is a Democratic hot-button issue. Rather, this is a story about whether Denver had a policy in place before the November 2008 elections which allowed the Elections Division to hire felons after getting a positive hit from their Colorado Bureau of Investigations check.

7/31/09
Aspen: Ballots are exempt from state open records law

Citizens seeking to conduct an independent review of Aspen's last municipal election have run into a road block at city hall, where officials are refusing to release key documents into the public domain.

5/19/09
Online voter registration could save big

A bill that Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law on Friday that will allow Coloradans to register to vote online could save the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary spending, according to a liberal activist group.

5/18/09
Ritter Signs Election and Voter Reform Bills

Gov. Bill Ritter signed five bills on Friday aimed at changing election rules and enacting voter reform.

Current Litigation

Below are the Colorado Active Cases. See All Colorado Current and Archived Cases