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October 02, 2011 07:36 PM UTC

GOP Mesa County Clerk Breaks With Gessler

  • 14 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby reports:

Secretary of State Scott Gessler is right, but for the wrong reasons, Mesa County Clerk Sheila Reiner said Friday.

Gessler is right that county clerks are required to send ballots to registered voters for this year’s all-mail elections. But he’s wrong that they aren’t allowed to include inactive voters, particularly when it comes to those in the military, Reiner and other area clerks said. [Pols emphasis]

None of four area county clerks plans to mail ballots to inactive voters as Denver and other county clerks in the state are doing, but Reiner disagrees with Gessler’s recent lawsuit to block them from doing so…

“I had made a decision early on not to include the inactive voters because it wasn’t required,” Reiner said. “But I have to agree with the Denver County clerk and recorder that the statute requirements are only a minimum, and in many areas clerks often go over and above depending on the needs of their counties.”

Inactive voters always are an issue during odd-year elections such as this one, particularly when they fall after a mid-term election, the clerks said. Far more people vote during a presidential year than any other, but voters become inactive if they fail to vote in one even-year general election.

During the last presidential election in 2008, 2.4 million Coloradans voted, but last year only 1.8 million ballots were cast statewide. Currently, there are 1.2 million inactive voters on the state’s voter rolls. [Pols emphasis]

As we’ve discussed, Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s case rests on the insistence that the law is exclusive when it says clerks shall mail a ballot to “active registered electors”–basically, inferring the existence of the word “only” in this provision. Gessler asserts this is necessary to preserve “uniformity” in elections across the state, but the fact is that policies already vary county by county. A few counties are not even conducting all mail-ballot elections this year at all. GOP Mesa County Clerk Sheila Reiner, even though her office isn’t sending ballots to inactive voters, believes her office would have the prerogative to do so if she chose.

So there’s another informed opinion on the wrongheaded nature of Gessler’s lawsuit against Denver and threats against Pueblo over mailing ballots to “inactive failed to vote” status registered voters. We believe that this will be the opinion of the court when Gessler’s case against Denver is heard next Friday–that nothing in Colorado law prevents counties prevents counties from sending these ballots.

But we’ll note again: given what Rep. Charles Gonzalez has said about this situation while asking the Justice Department to get involved, flatly pronouncing the failure to send ballots to deployed soldiers “a violation of federal law”–more confidently in the case deployed military voters, but perhaps all “inactive failed to vote” status voters throughout the state who aren’t getting a ballot to participate in an all-mail ballot election along with everybody else–we wonder if the result of this will be a determination that Colorado’s mail-ballot system is just plain busted now that the temporary provision ensuring that ballots would go out to inactives has expired.

Regardless of the method of voting, is it legal to require voters who miss one general election to take extra steps, not required of those who didn’t, to participate in a subsequent election? Is it possible that, based on Gessler’s attempt to force Denver (and Pueblo) to be “uniform” with the other counties, the federal government might conclude that Denver and Pueblo were the only counties conducting a legal election? In an all mail-ballot election, what is the “electoral process” to which equal access must be protected under federal law if not the ballot itself? We’ve been careful to avoid making sweeping declarative statements about this, but we admit the questions that Gessler is raising by attempting to exploit this situation are kind of…sweeping.

Some of those answers could make Gessler sorely regret raising the questions. A ruling or legislation permanently mandating the delivery of mail ballots to all registered voters with deliverable addresses in counties holding mail ballot-only elections (as was the case in the last election cycle) could be fairly considered the worst outcome possible for Gessler. If that’s what happens, it would principally be a consequence of Gessler’s splashy, boorish, overreaching style–as you can read above, clerks like Sheila Reiner would have left the status quo alone.

But Gessler had to push it. It’s what he does.

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14 thoughts on “GOP Mesa County Clerk Breaks With Gessler”

  1. This is what has to happen, right? Especially after this brouhaha, the legislature has to act to fix this whatever the court decides. And I don’t see how it can be fixed other than by making all registered voters get mailed ballots in a mail ballot election can it? The 2008 law fixing this problem should never have been made temporary, since it’s a recurring situation every general election. No Democrat (can’t speak for the Repugs) would intentionally create a situation with 1.2 million Coloradans don’t get their ballots.

    Fix this problem, and then recall Gessler. The Guvs are right about one thing, sometimes you don’t know how something can be exploited until it gets rolled into a tube and crammed up your chute.

    1. Must completely agree with clerk Reiner that, as it stands now, there is no prohibition against sending “inactive” voters a ballot.  There are requirements to be met but no prohibitions against going beyond requirements.  I don’t know how any fair court could rule Gessler’s way in the absence of the word “only”. But the sooner we have legislation making that clear the better.

  2. http://www.chieftain.com/news/…

    El Paso County Clerk Wayne Williams said his office – which handles hundreds of absentee military ballots each election – is not sending ballots to some 800 inactive military voters registered in that county. Williams said his office sent two postcards, plus emails where addresses were provided, trying to revive those voters’ interest in applying for a mail ballot. They didn’t respond and  won’t get ballots, Williams said.

     “The last time we sent out inactive ballots, we only got back about 1 in 1,000,” Williams said. “So it’s not very cost effective.”

    http://blog.ariarmstrong.com/2…

    Mailing out ballots to inactive voters is an open invitation to voter fraud. There’s no telling who’s going to receive and submit the ballot.

    Therefore, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler sensibly told Denver and Pueblo Counties that they should follow Colorado law and not mail ballots to inactive voters.

    In response to Gessler’s protection of voting integrity, the left has waged a full-scale smear campaign against him, accusing him of racism and disenfranchisement. This is a major leftist strategy for the 2012 elections: smear all Republicans, conservatives, Tea Partiers, and free-market activists as racists, in order to raise sympathy support for Obama. It is a nasty, mean-spirited, intellectually dishonest tactic. If you want to understand why the left does this, read the article I coauthored on Saul Alinsky and Obama.

    1. or is this just another GOP attempt at voter suppression?

      After Scotty Walker from WI is recalled, recalling this horrible GOP SOS will be cake.  

    2. smear all Republicans, conservatives, Tea Partiers, and free-market activists as racists

      No, not all, just the ones who do stupid shit that has racist consequences.

    3. Well, the last times Denver mailed out ballots to inactive voters, it got back about 1 in 7. Maybe El Paso county residents just aren’t very good citizens?

      1. When it comes to the execution of certain duties, the expense of it is absolutely NOT a valid argument.

        They have a duty to send ballots to every registered voter on their rolls.

        Government is NOT business. “Cost effectiveness” is NOT a consideration when it comes to these essential functions.

    6. Neither you nor Gessler can show us  any documented cases of voter fraud related to sending out mail in ballots.  Zero.  As has been pointed out here the last successful prosecution of voter fraud in Denver dates back to 2005. You  cite your  alleged one in a thousand figure but one case out all votes cast in 5  years is a far, far tinier percentage.

      As the law stands now there is nothing to stop county clerks from doing as you prefer by not sending out ballots to “inactive” voters but there is also nothing to prevent them from doing so.  Also stats from “last time” aren’t indicative of the number that could be expected to vote in future presidential year elections when choosing to vote is much more common.

      So I’d say it’s Gessler who is creating the ado about nothing (expense when he’s all about expensive suits and nonexistent voter fraud) not the counties who want to give our soldiers every chance to exercise their right to vote, whether they avail themselves of that chance or not in any given election.  

      There is not a shred of evidence for the existence of the downside, voter fraud, you keep trying to create as an excuse for what is clearly part of the nationwide GOP push for as much voter suppression as possible.  While military lean conservative Republican, Gessler doesn’t mind throwing them under the bus to achieve the goal of eliminating as many Democratic leaning voters as possible, a much larger contingent in places like Denver.

    7. So far only seven people have replied or insulted you based on your latest post.  That’s entirely too few and too little attention paid to the subject of your opinion.  

      So I’ll add on…

      Damn dude, your soo wrong! Friggin’ ass hat sunabitch! You’re wrong in sooo many ways that you’re wrong enough to be wrong and wronger. Dick. I can’t believe it has taken so few people to react to the comments you make to point out you are wrong!!!

      Man, you such a dick for posting that because you are wrong! I wish I could reach through this screen right now and shake your wiggly little bobble head around and yell at you that you are Wrong (with a capital W as in George W Bush which is who you are because you wrote that on this blog!!!)!

      Grrrrr. Arrrrghh!!!  Gnash. Gnash. Eye roll. Eye roll. Middle finger in the air…

      Grrr.

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