Secretary of State Mike Coffman on Monday convened a public meeting on elections, vowing to make good on his campaign promise to restore public confidence in Colorado’s electoral process.
Working with his Democratic rival for the office, Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, Coffman opened what is expected to be a series of hearings on potential solutions to computer breakdowns and other problems that led to long lines in Denver and several other counties in November.
“As Colorado’s chief elections officer, I have made it my administration’s top priority to restore public confidence in our electoral process,” he said.
Coffman’s spokesman, Jonathan Tee, said his boss is on “a fact-finding” mission, and “all options are on the table.”
Several election-related bills are already under consideration. Gordon is weighing whether to reintroduce his proposal to require all-mail elections in Colorado. And Coffman will be pushing legislation to require that voters present a photo ID in order to cast a ballot.
The panel, which included Gordon and several other Senate leaders, heard from elections officials from Denver, Larimer and Douglas counties.
Ironically, computer problems prevailed. Larimer County Clerk Scott Doyle had technical issues, prompting Gordon to ask “if that was the same computer you used for the elections.”
The public also had a chance to comment. Dante James, of the African-American Voter Information Project, pushed for a change in current law that gives groups involved in voter-registration drives only seven days to get the registrations filed with county clerks.
