Responding to a string of election mishaps and blunders, the Denver City Council today will consider scrapping the current Election Commission and giving voters the power to hire and fire their top election officer.
If approved by the City Council, the proposal to eliminate the three- member commission and remove the clerk and recorder position from the mayor’s executive branch would go to voters in November.
A new position of elected clerk would be created and accountable to Denver residents, according to a written draft of the proposal. The clerk would appoint a director to run election operations.
“We need someone in charge who answers to the public and takes responsibility for things when they go wrong,” said Pete Maysmith, director of the government watchdog group Colorado Common Cause. “This ‘it’s her fault, no it’s his fault,’ makes it harder to pinpoint the problems and fix them.”
Maysmith and City Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriguez are introducing the proposal to the council charter committee.
The Election Commission, created 100 years ago, is the only one of its kind in the state. It is made up of two elected commissioners and the clerk and recorder, who is appointed by the mayor. Under the new system, there would be only one elected commissioner.
None of the current commissioners has publicly opposed the move.
City Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie, head of the charter committee, said she didn’t expect a final decision today.
“I think we will have a sense of how people view it,” she said. “I have no idea how people are going to respond.”
The recommended charter change comes after the commission and election manager Karon Hatchett – all of whom have been criticized as mismanaging elections – are trying to find an agreeable way for her to leave her $69,000-a-year position.
In the November general election, nearly 40 percent of reported voting problems in Colorado occurred in Denver, a Denver Post analysis found. Additionally, the commission was late in mailing some 13,000 absentee ballots in that presidential election.
In February, the commission reversed its decision to hold an all-mail ballot for the May election that approved a new justice center – even though a mail election was expected to save taxpayers as much as $400,000. Instead, the members decided to use a combination of absentee ballots, early voting at vote centers and election-day polling places.
The commission is expected to reverse itself again Thursday. Instead of using vote centers in November, the commission appears poised to opt for an all-mail ballot.
Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-820-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com.
