The Colorado Springs Independent yesterday published a riveting article about El Paso County and its consistent bad behavior of "Bob Balink", the County Clerk.
Of course, making the voting process easy is not a top goal for Bob Balink, El Paso County's clerk and recorder. The outspoken Republican has long called for requiring photo identification at polling places and other measures he says are needed to stop fraud.
Recently, Balink made noise about fraudulent voter registrations after employees found about 10 applications with apparent errors. He also triggered an outcry by releasing information to Colorado College asserting that students from other states are ineligible to vote. (Though Balink later retracted that information, a statement currently posted on the clerk and recorder's Web site warns students about risks of registering to vote in Colorado and suggests they could be victims of exploitation.)
But he and four others who registered as Democrats still could not find proof that their registrations went through. Wildenstein just needed his address changed, but he says it wasn't processed until he visited the clerk's office on Oct. 2."They didn't know what happened to mine," he says.
Liz Olson, the county's election manager, indicates that since Aug. 1, a total of 6,157 residents have registered Republican, 6,145 have registered Democratic and 8,588 have declared no party. This represents something of a Democratic surge, given that current registration numbers in the county have Republicans at a 2-to-1 advantage. (Through Oct. 7, El Paso County had 372,359 registered voters, with 164,844 Republicans, 83,737 Democrats, 121,912 unaffiliated and 1,866 with other parties.)
State Sen. John Morse, a local Democrat who has expressed concern that registrations from his own party have been disproportionately rejected or ignored, is skeptical after hearing the latest numbers.
"Something seems wrong there," he says, suggesting there should be more registered Democrats. "With all the work [by] the Obama campaign, it doesn't make sense."...
Others who register Monday have greater cause for irritation. Susan Powell (relative of Indy sales staffer P.K. Powell) was already a registered voter when she tried signing up online for a mail ballot this summer. After starting to fill out the form, she changed her mind and closed the window.
She didn't think about her registration again until she searched the secretary of state's Web site over the weekend. She was alarmed to find her entire registration had somehow been deleted.
"If I hadn't checked ..." she says in a tone of dread.
Now here is our story: My wife filled out an address change registration back in August that included a permanent MIB request. I checked the Secretary of State's on line registration info link often and until mid September when my daughter's new Voter ID arrived. She had turned her registration change in 3 weeks after my wife! Upon calling the El Paso Clerk's office I found that they had mistakenly misspelled her last name, placing another letter at the end of our surname. They corrected it in the computer and consequently she received her Voter ID with the correct information.
Then over the last weekend we received our Mail In Ballots and her name was misspelled with the extra letter! My wife who will be an election judge and someone who is a former banker and stickler for exact information said I don't think I can use this ballot. Well I checked and calling the infamous El Paso County Clerk's Office I inquired:
Me: What are we supposed to do?
Jennifer: (staffer who answered the phone), "Here is the process, the computer will read the bar code and it will see that your wife is properly registered and match her signature and there will probably not be a problem".
ME: "Probably? How can I be assured period?"
Jennifer: Silence, "well I don't know".
Me:"Should I bring the ballot in and get a replacement?"
Jennifer: "I don't know the laws, let me check".
Skytel: (Supervisor) "Sir, I don't think there will be a problem", (repeat of the process),
Me: I cut her off, "Think"? What specifically should we do to assure that her vote will not be challenged?
Skytel: "You can bring it down here."
Me: Can? "Should I or not? My wife is an elections judge and she said she would challenge it, why wouldn't another judge challenge it?"
Skytel: "Let me transfer you to Bob Balink's secretary".
Mary Lynn (Balink's Admin Asst.) She basically got me to leave my name and phone number.
About an hour later Liz Olsen, the Elections Manager called and we conversed.
Liz: "Mr. Nemanich, if you like we can send out a new ballot with the updated and correct name on the ballot and either you can destroy or bring in the spoiled ballot and we will destroy it."
Me: "I am happy you cleared this up even though my wife and I knew the answer beforehand, I wanted to see how your office reacted to the inquiry. Now you need to have your staff knowledable to inform all citizens what are their options, not what could happen or it probably will not be a problem."
Liz: "I will and thank you."
Now this is followed up with an amazing letter Governor Ritter sent to Secretary of State Coffman's office. Please not the claims of disinformation and specifically the paragraphs outlining Balink's office here in Colorado Springs.
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
136 State Capitol Building
Denver, Colorado 80203
(303) 866 -2471
(303) 866 - 2003 faxBill Ritter, Jr.
Governor
October 9.2008
Secretary of State Mike Coffman
Colorado Department of State
1700 Broadway
Denver, CO 80290
Dear Secretary Coffman:
I am certain that you share my view that the opportunity to vote in our elections is a fundamental right that, as public officials, we must make every effort to protect. I believe that you also share my commitment to ensuring that all Coloradans who are qualified and wish to exercise this right have every opportunity to do so in November's election. The purpose of this letter is to urge you to take more aggressive steps to correct an error made by your office regarding the deadline for remedying an incomplete voter registration application. A letter prepared by your office and mailed by a number of county clerks incorrectly told over 4,000 registrants with incomplete applications that any deficiencies had to be rectified by October 6, 2008. As you know, under state statute and your own rules, these registrants may correct or supplement their applications at anytime prior to voting. See C.R.S. § 1-2-509(3); Election Rule 2.6.3. Your dissemination of
inaccurate information may disenfranchise hundreds or thousands of Coloradans, an outcome that is unacceptable.
Since Monday my Office has been contacted directly by scores of constituents who are concerned that they and others who thought they registered to vote will be disenfranchised come election day. Members of my staff have been in contact with members of your staff, and I am aware that your office learned last Friday that your initial instruction to county clerks was inaccurate. Further, I understand that your office
is preparing a letter to go to the applicants who were provided inaccurate information, but that this letter will not be completed until Friday of this week at the earliest. or as late as next week. In my view this letter alone is too little, too late. I urge you, as the chief election official in this State, to direct all county election officials to make personal contact by telephone with each potential voter who may have been misled or confused by the earlier communications. I urge you to direct county election officials to include these people on the polling books statewide and to provide these individuals with the opportunity to remedy this technical deficiency at the polls on election day. Finally, I urge you to contact media outlets statewide to ensure that corrected information is communicated as broadly as possible. In short, please ensure that these individuals are notified that they will be afforded every opportunity to remedy any deficiencies in their applications with minimal burden through election day.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time this season that county election officials have issued erroneous communications that have the potential to disenfranchise qualified voters. Last month, EI Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink publicly acknowledged that he had misinterpreted Colorado law when he sent an erroneous message to Colorado College indicating that students whose parents live in another state and claim them as dependents for tax purposes are not eligible to register to vote in Colorado. Even after correcting his error, Mr. Balink posted on his office's website a caution to college students warning them of potential negative ramifications of registering to vote in Colorado. These actions were, in the first case, wrong and in the other, beyond the scope of his duties as Clerk. His actions are unacceptable and should
be carefully scrutinized by your office.
It is critical that public officials charged with carrying out the law provide the public with accurate information. It is all the more critical when, as here, the wrong information has the impact of discouraging citizens from exercising a fundamental right. Providing the wrong information is inexcusable for many reasons: it disenfranchises
voters; it makes citizens skeptical (especially when the chief election official is on the ballot); and it exposes the State to litigation risk. But most importantly, it risks impacting the outcome of the election.
Our focus as public officials should be on ensuring that every qualified elector in this State is able to exercise his or her right to vote in the upcoming election. This includes encouraging the use of mail-in ballots, as well as expanding access to early voting opportunities. To that end, I ask that you join me in requesting that every county across our State open its polls on weekends during the early voting period, as feasible.
Providing additional access to early voting opportunities across the State, at times most convenient for the working men and women of Colorado, is all the more critical in this year's election when we can expect record turnout and a longer than usual ballot. In addition, I ask that you join me in requesting that those voters who have the flexibility in their schedules to permit them to vote between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on election day, when lines will be shortest, do so. It is steps like these that will help ensure that all Coloradans who are registered and wish to vote will be able to exercise this fundamental right.
Thank you for your prompt attention to these issues.
Sincerely,
.
Bill Ritter,Jr.Governor
So what gives? The situation is becoming pretty basic even the Governor see's what is going on, disinformation, manipulation, questionable recording, incompetence and outright suppression.
Lastly, I have accessed the most up-to-date registration totals for El Paso County. They still are receiving applications by mail and updating the file.
Democrats: 84,042----Republicans 164, 738---Unaffiliated 120,350 total 369,130
01/28/08: D-68,689-------Rep's 153,532----Unaffiliated 108,406--total 330,627
--------+15,353--------- + 11,206-------------- +11,944------- +38, 503
---------22% up---------- 7% up----------------- 11% up
Or think of it this way; 18% of Dem voters have been registrated this year, while 6% of GOP voters have been registered, and just under 10% of unaffiliated voters. FiveThirtyEight.com holds to this projection. 80% of new Dem & Unaffiliated voters intend to vote for Obama at a 75% turnout or a pool of 27, 292, or 20, 473 voting and 16,378 Obama votes to 4094 to McCain or a net 12, 300. If this is accomplished I think Obama is going to surpass 45% for El Paso County and possibly a couple of ticks higher---more on that later.
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