A judge ruled Friday that electronic voting machines can be used by Colorado counties in the Aug. 8 primary.
However, Denver District Judge Lawrence Manzanares said their use in the November general election is still to be decided.
Manzanares scheduled an Aug. 28 hearing to determine if Secretary of State Gigi Dennis followed adequate procedures and the law in the certification of the machines.
Denver attorneys at Wheeler Trigg Kennedy LLP – backed by the national voter advocacy group Voter Action – had sued Dennis and nine of the counties that plan to use the machines.
Voter Action claims the machines are unreliable and insecure, causing election disruptions wherever they’ve been used.
But following a day-long hearing, Manzanares said that Voter Action and the lawyers hadn’t sufficiently alleged any wrongdoing on the part of the counties and dismissed the counties from the lawsuit.
Manzanares refused, however, to dismiss the case against the secretary of state, saying he’d allow Voter Action on Aug. 28 to try to prove Dennis’ certifications weren’t sufficient.
The secretary of state’s office said the machines the counties will use have all been certified at the state and federal level.
The counties told the judge that if he decertifies the machines on Aug. 28, they won’t use them in November.
Paul Hultin of Wheeler Trigg Kennedy said the ruling was a victory, despite the dismissal of the counties.
“We are very pleased that we are going to be able to have a hearing in front of the judge and that we are going to be able to shed some light on the certification process in the secretary of state’s office,” Hultin said.
Hultin said he was also very pleased that the counties said they would abide by any ruling the court made about the legality of the secretary of state’s process.
“That actually simplifies the case for us,” Hultin said.
Voter Action is backing similar lawsuits across the country.
State officials told Manzanares that by using the machines in the primary, they’ll be able to find out if there are any problems and have them ironed out by the general election.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
