We applaud Colorado lawmakers and the secretary of state for taking the measure of last November’s election and working to fix a flawed system. Gov. Bill Owens this week signed into law two identical measures – Senate bills 198 and 206 – aimed at restoring voter confidence after two consecutive general elections in which fears of fraud abounded and problems in the system were exposed.
Critical anti-fraud provisions will protect election credibility. The new reforms will require verifiable paper records to back up electronic voting machines after 2010 (to make sure votes are counted accurately) and random audits comparing machine totals with hand-counted paper ballots. They require the registration of people conducting voter drives, the timely submission of forms to the secretary of state, and prohibit drive organizers from paying workers based on the number of applications they collect.
A critical change will allow voters who cast a provisional ballot because they went to the wrong precinct to have their votes for statewide and federal offices counted. We applaud this change. In the 2004 election, provisional ballots were counted only for president and vice president.
The law smartly prohibits the secretary of state from chairing a political campaign. Controversy inevitably followed Florida’s Katherine Harris, who chaired George W. Bush’s campaign in 2000, and Kenneth Blackwell, who had double duty in Ohio in 2004.
The reforms stem from the merger of bills by Democratic lawmakers and Republican Secretary of State Donetta Davidson. It’s not often that the governor gets to do the right thing in duplicate.
