We congratulate Colorado Secretary of State Donetta Davidson on her appointment to the federal Election Assistance Commission.
While her tenure here was not without flaws and controversy, Davidson, a Republican, revamped the office after the death of Secretary Vikki Buckley and brought much of its technology into the 21st century.
She knows plenty, too much perhaps, about election pitfalls, stumbling in 2004 with a unilateral rule change that prevented voters who showed up at the wrong precinct from casting ballots on any race except president, and waiting until nearly half of Colorado’s 16,000 election judges were trained before issuing a uniform rule manual.
Davidson learned some hard lessons in an intensely partisan atmosphere, and then worked with Democrats this spring on legislation that corrects the mistake involving wrong-precinct voters and smartly requires counties to back up electronic voting machines with verifiable paper trails.
