Counties representing more than 80 percent of Colorado voters support using mail-only ballots to alleviate what many perceive as a regulatory mess heading into this year’s statewide and congressional elections, according to an informal survey.
Larimer County Clerk and Recorder Scott Doyle last week polled clerk and recorders around the state, asking them if they would “support a statewide mandate that all counties hold mail-ballot elections in the primary and general election this year only.”
Seventy percent of the 44 counties that responded backed the idea, Doyle said Friday. There are 64 counties in the state.
Nine of the state’s 10 largest counties – basically the Front Range counties – answered. All nine supported the plan, he said.
“That represents 80 percent of this state’s voters,” said Doyle, co-chair of the Colorado Clerk and Recorders Association legislative committee.
He declined, however, to name which counties responded, or release responses from specific counties.
Denver City Council President Rosemary Rodriguez – a former clerk and recorder – sparked the idea last week when she asked the Denver Election Commission to consider such a plan to address “chaos” surrounding voting-machine regulations.
“I think it hit a nerve,” she said Friday. “There is a lot of concern about not being able to meet all the various criteria and not having time to plan for it.”
State statute forbids all-mail ballots in partisan elections such as the coming races for governor and Congress. And in 2002, voters rejected a measure to allow statewide elections by mail.
But a combination of new federal and state regulations have prevented clerks from being able to purchase required new equipment as August primaries draw closer. A few vendors have created machines intended to meet the new requirement, but none of them had been certified by the state. That leaves just over five months for the machines to be certified, ordered, manufactured, shipped, tested and readied for the August primaries.
Doyle said clerks are seeking a one-year exemption because with early voting for primaries coming in mid-July, he and others are short on time.
“None of us want to be in noncompliance,” Doyle said. “But it is the perfect storm wrapping up right now.”
Doyle said he personally does not prefer mail-ballot elections, but a one-year exemption would give counties time to negotiate better prices for voting machines.
Such an exemption would require a bill from the state legislature, and Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon said Friday he would see if there was support.
“There is going to be a caution because of the vote that occurred ” in 2002 against mail ballots, Gordon said. “But there is a specific reason why this is needed now … so that may cause people to consider this as an option. It’s a big deal.”
Still, the secretary of state’s office said without a bill from the legislature, it will continue to prepare for an election at the polls.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-820-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
