Gov. Bill Ritter has asked lawmakers for an extra $3.5 million to help cover elections costs this year.
The money would be distributed to Colorado’s counties to pay for updating election equipment or implementing a paper-ballot voting system for the 2008 elections.
Ritter and legislative leaders are pushing for a paper-ballot system this year after concerns over the reliability of electronic voting terminals that the Secretary of State decertified last year. Sen. Ken Gordon, a Denver Democrat who is drafting a bill detailing what the paper-ballot system would look like, said the funding will be a part of that bill.
“The goal is to have a funded mandate,” Gordon said Friday. Gordon said he intends to introduce the bill Monday or Tuesday.
But it is still unclear how much elections in Colorado will cost this year and whether the $3.5 million will be enough to cover all counties’ added costs. What Gordon’s bill requires after it is debated, amended and signed will partially determine the cost. Also factoring into the analysis is what voting equipment county clerks will be able to use.
Secretary of State Mike Coffman intends to announce early this week whether he is recertifying all or some of the currently decertified machines. Nancy Amick, the Rio Blanco County Clerk and the president of the Colorado County Clerks Association, has said the added election costs could balloon to nearly $40 million if counties have to buy new machines on a short schedule.
“There’s so much up in the air and so many unknowns that there’s no way to put a dollar figure on this now,” Larimer County Clerk Scott Doyle said Friday.
Gordon said lawmakers will do everything they can to help the clerks run the election, including trying to get extra funding if it’s needed.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
