ARVADA, Colo.—Clerks in Colorado’s El Paso and Jefferson counties said they weren’t trying to interfere with press coverage of the election when they required reporters to clear any visits to polling places with them.
Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson said she ordered precinct captains not to allow the news media into polling places without permission because she wanted to avoid disruption at polling places. She said she also wanted to make sure no cameras were brought in that might upset voters.
Anderson said she ordered precinct officials and poll volunteers not to talk to the press and to refer any questions to her office.
“We just want to make sure the judges called us,” she said after a reporter was turned away from an Arvada polling place and ordered to stand 100 feet away following allegations of voting irregularities at the polling place.
Anderson said she checked out the reports and found some voters had showed up after hearing rumors that two other polling places in Arvada had closed down. The rumors circulated because the county had closed a precinct before the election and voters were assigned a new polling place.
El Paso County Clerk Bob Balink required reporters to get advance approval before visiting precincts Tuesday, saying there is no guaranteed access for the news media to witness an election.
“The only people who are supposed to be at the polling places are people trying to vote and the poll watchers. You can’t have people coming and going. All we asked is that the media call us ahead of time,” Balink said.
Balink said he resented suggestions that advance notice could allow precincts to clean up their act if they were having problems. He said under state law, party representatives are allowed to have one poll watcher each to make sure the election is fair.
Richard Coolidge, spokesman for Secretary of State Mike Coffman, said the state leaves it up to individual county clerks to set the rules for access. “It’s up to the county,” Coolidge said.
