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October 06, 2011 09:44 PM UTC

No On 103 Campaign Hopes Gessler Suppresses Denver Vote

  • 32 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

A revealing admission in a Colorado Public Radio story today regarding the lawsuit against Denver by Secretary of State Scott Gessler to stop ballots from being mailed to “inactive” voters. CPR correspondent Ben Markus follows up on the insistence by Gessler that withholding ballots from “inactive” voters won’t make a difference, since response rates are “so low” and it’s so easy to “reactivate” your registration. For one thing, you can try later if the website is down.

Oddly, at least one fellow conservative seems kind of worried about something:

Reporter Ben Markus: There are 55,000 inactive voters in Denver.  And Debra Johnson, the City and County’s Clerk and Recorder, says they could have missed voting in the last election for any number of reasons.

Johnson: I mean, you had to work late — overtime — you know, I mean, you’re sick.  I mean, so should they have one time and not have the same ballot mailed to them?

Reporter: She thinks they should get a ballot.  And Denver has mailed ballots to inactive voters in the last 5 elections…

But Victor Mitchell a former Republican State Representative, who runs SaveColoradoJobs.org says if voters have become inactive then that’s [their] own fault.  Mitchell’s concerned that if liberal Denver’s 55-thousand inactive voters get ballots in the mail, that could unfairly tip the scales in favor of Proposition 103 — which would raise taxes for the state’s schools.

Mitchell: It could have a significant impact potentially on the outcome of this. Right now the polls are neck and neck on how Prop 103 will turn out. [Pols emphasis]

What a fascinating slip! Apparently, despite the confident bluster, Proposition 103 is not the lost cause Republicans would have you believe it is! What’s more, mail ballots delivered to “inactive” voters might make a difference in an election after all! That makes the idea of denying them, either in Denver or anywhere else, much more problematic to justify–unless, of course, your goal (like Victor Mitchell’s unusually blunt admission) is to have fewer people voting.

After all, there’s “no vote suppression” going on here, right? Either Gessler is right that this isn’t about reducing the number of votes from Denver, or Mitchell is right that reducing the number of “liberal Denver” voters, thereby preventing “a significant impact,” is exactly what this is about.

They can’t both be right, folks.

Comments

32 thoughts on “No On 103 Campaign Hopes Gessler Suppresses Denver Vote

  1. why a Republican would think there is an advantage for their side if fewer get mail-in ballots? Isn’t it supposed to have nothing to do with looking for an  advantage? It’s supposed to be about expense and fraud, not turn out, and only libruls could possibly suspect any other motive, right?  

      1. Never mind.  It’s not a matter of thinking. You just need to keep finding new excuses for why the real world is such a poor match for the one you live in while closing your eyes and putting your hands over your ears.  

          1. Few R pols would think lower Denver turn out helps them?  Most just really, really beleive that, in spite of no evidence, there’s a tremendous risk of voter fraud if you let people who  missed a midterm get ballots?  Wait.  Don’t bother.  The thing about you, ArapG, is that you are a 100% predictable little Borg member.

            1. Doesn’t this give Denver voters un unfair advantage over voters in counties where the ballots aren’t bring sent? Part of Gessler’s argument is this dilutes the vote in counties that are complying with the law!

              I keep forgetting that Denver liberals have a different set of rules.

              1. Clerks have always had some discretion about how to conduct elections. They’re elected officials, not bureaucrats simply following the secretary’s instructions.

                What about counties that have polling places located more densely than others? Are they diluting the votes of counties that make voters drive farther?

                Do clerks who mail their ballots on the 11th dilute the votes from counties where clerks mail the ballots on the 13th?

                This is as much about whether clerks have some latitude about how they run elections in their own counties — which is one reason we elect clerks locally instead of letting a central authority run things from Denver — as it is about whatever fight Gessler chose to pick.

              2. As will be shown by the Court today, there is nothing stopping other couties from also serving their voters better by sending ballots to those who are inactive ONLY because their vote was not cast 2010, whether that was by their own coice, or the ballot getting lost in the mail, or perhaps something came up that prevented them from getting to the polls.

                Uniformity would have to come in the form of legislation in this matter. To achieve uniformity, the GA would have to say “you may not mail”, “you must mail”, or get rid the “inactive-failed to vote” category altogether.

        1. Most everyone I know who reads this blog would never, ever post here. I believe that providing an alternative viewpoint in this liberal propaganda mouthpiece is very important, and I am confident that there are plenty of readers who agree with me more than any of you.

          1. Sure…

            How, exactly, would voter fraud work if Denver mails its ballots to inactive registered voters? I’m interested in how, theoretically, that could be coordinated and pulled off.

              1. ArapG has confused “alternative viewpoint” with “alternate reality”. So much so that he believes things even GOP pols and Koch brothers spokespersons don’t claim to believe. It’s almost endearing.  But since, as I understand it, ArapG isn’t 6 years old, not so much.

          2. thanks for the backhand pops.  

            Hate to deflate your vapid asshole ego but  you can do us a favor and save your alternative viewpoint of unsubstantiated opinionated RW crap for you & your willfully ignorant cabal.

  2. As the party without principle, Republicans are just perfecting their techniques for stealing next year’s election.  When you have a clown for a candidate and no new ideas, the only thing to do is use your position as SOS to corrupt elections.  They are traitors to our democracy who are doing more damage to our political institutions than the jihadists could ever dream of doing.  No one believes Gessler is an impartial arbiter of the law.

    Democrats and Independents need to mount a recall campaign against this asshole before he becomes the next Blackwell.

    1. We would have no one to blame but ourselves if we let this continue into 2012.  We know now what he’s about – it’s crystal clear, even if some tried to think the best before SG was elected.  Need action.

    2. won’t be an all-mail election. Sure there will be cascading problems as people who were disenfranchised from this year’s election now have two elections where they were inactive, and so subject to being culled from the rolls. My question is– how will polling places handle the “didn’t get a ballot, but on the mail ballot list” voters?

      I nearly missed one election because I had planned on needing an absentee ballot. Having registered absentee, I didn’t get around to filling it out until too late and figured I would drop by my polling place after work. They wouldn’t let me vote because I was on the mail list and I had to run home, grab my absentee ballot and truck it to the clerks office.

      I have a sneaking suspicion that the rules that put the mail-in voters and the in-person voters into separate piles will be reconciled with the spurious “don’t mail a ballot unless we like you” rule by simply disenfranchising a bunch of people.  

      1. the kind of seizures you would be having if a Democrat was so blatant about using his position to steal elections?  You would be shitting all over yourself with outrage.

      2. Gessler being Gessler will probably give us a lot more examples by next spring.  With the clown prince of the Republican Party anointed by then there will be a lot of Obama folks who will take seriously the threat of Gessler’s hack partisanship and as we saw with Douglas Bruce and the anti-government amendments last year, money can buy you a lot of canvassers.

        I wonder if the Obama campaign is going to have any money to spend to combat voter suppression practices by the Republicans?

        1. before we get it?  The Obama folks should put substantial resources into this – GOP attempts to control who votes could be more impactful than GOP attempts to control the message.  A major factor in Obama’s 2008 win was his amazing GOTV operation (I know because I worked in it).  The GOP knows this and is already working hard to suppress it.

  3. If Rollie were to hold himself to the same standards of his hb1326, he wouldn’t even be on the ballot.

    Signatures from every congressional district.

    1. Brucie boy and his shenanigans last year in committing election violations to get the kill Colorado amendments on the ballot.

      Look in the mirror if you want to see a true hypocrite.

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