Squeezed by the calendar, Denver District Judge Lawrence Manzanares made the only call possible last week in ruling that the Nov. 7 election should go forward with electronic voting machines that were used in the August primary.
A group of Colorado citizens, backed by a California-based organization that has challenged new voting machines in other states as well, had asked Manzanares to ban use of four types of voting machines that had been certified by the state.
The alternative – rushing additional paper ballots to press, training election judges and putting ballot-scanning machines in place – carried too high a risk at this late date of throwing the election into chaos. The judge also noted that it was too late to devise new security standards and retest the electronic machines, which will be used in every county. Manzanares found that the secretary of state’s office had failed to properly certify the machines and ordered a whole new certification be done after the November election.
The fact that Secretary of State Gigi Dennis and her staff failed at what should have been their most important assignment this year is sobering, and has left the state’s voters in an uncomfortable position. It should be a top priority for the new secretary of state – Republican Mike Coffman and Democrat Ken Gordon are vying for the job – to ensure the security of voting systems and restore citizen confidence.
Manzanares acknowledged that the machines’ software might be vulnerable to tampering and ordered the state to immediately draft detailed rules for counties to follow to ensure the machines are kept secure. The secretary of state’s spokeswoman, Dana Williams, said the plans were completed Monday and submitted to the plaintiffs’ lawyers. The judge is to rule on them today.
Use of the new machines was driven by a federal law designed to restore voter confidence after the problems of the 2000 presidential election. Instead, the certification problems in Colorado may have had the opposite effect.
Voters who don’t want to think twice about the machines have the option, and plenty of time, to vote by mail. Voters can request absentee ballots by Oct. 27 if they want ballots mailed to them, and can pick them up in person as late as Nov. 3. If you mail your ballot back, allow enough time for it to be received by Election Day, Nov. 7. An absentee ballot also can be returned in person to the clerk’s office in your county by 7 p.m. on Election Day. And remember, Coloradans who haven’t registered to vote in the November election are facing an Oct. 10 deadline, just two weeks from today.
