An energy industry advocacy group said today it plans to undertake a voter registration drive to get oil and gas workers in the state more involved in the political process.
Jon Bargas, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States or IPAMS, said the schedules of many energy workers make it difficult to vote. As a result, Bargas said, IPAMS representatives will attend employee meetings at various energy firms across the Rocky Mountain west to register energy workers to vote and sign them up to receive an absentee ballot.
“We’ll simply be giving them the tools they need to register to vote and request absentee ballots,” Bargas said. “… We’re going to be helping them become more involved in their community.”
Bargas said the purpose of the voter registration drive is not to get out the energy worker vote in favor of industry causes.
It is unclear how many energy workers in the state are eligible to vote in Colorado, said Garfield County Clerk Jean Alberico, whose county is at the center of the state’s oil and gas boom.
“When you register to vote in Colorado, you are signing that this is your sole and legal place of residence,” she said. “A lot of the energy workers are only here a few weeks a year, and they have their residence and their driver’s license in another state.”
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com.
