A Win for Purged Voters in Colorado
http://www.truthout.org:80/103008VA
Common Cause of Colorado, Mi Familia Vota Education Fund and the
Service Employees International Union sued Colorado Secretary of
State
Mike Coffman, alleging that his office illegally purged about 31,000
eligible voters from the rolls. (Photo: Brian Brainerd / The Denver
Post)
Groups, state agree on process to tally, screen provisional
ballots of those dropped from rolls.
Ballots cast by voters who have been canceled from the state's
voter rolls since mid-May will get extra oversight to make sure their
votes are counted, under an agreement reached late Wednesday in US
District Court.
Common Cause of Colorado, Mi Familia Vota Education Fund and the
Service Employees International Union sued Colorado Secretary of
State
Mike Coffman, alleging that his office had violated the National
Voter
Registration Act by illegally purging about 31,000 eligible voters
from the rolls 90 days before the election.
The state insists the actual number is smaller.
The plaintiffs had asked Senior U.S. District Judge John L. Kane
Jr. for a preliminary injunction that by Tuesday would reinstate
voters who had been removed from the rolls. They also asked Kane to
order the state to stop removing people until after the election.
Just before Kane was set to rule on the matter, the plaintiffs
and
the secretary of state's office reached an agreement.
The morning after the election, the state will generate a list of
voters who were removed from the rolls since May 14 and send it to
county clerks and the groups' attorneys for review.
The state then will order that the voters on the list who voted
by
provisional ballot will be verified before other provisional ballots
that have been cast.
"Voters on the list shall be presumed to be eligible and their
ballots will be counted," the agreement says. "Only upon a showing by
clear and convincing evidence that a voter is not eligible shall a
provisional ballot be rejected by the county."
The secretary of state also must conduct an independent review of
each ballot rejected at the county level and order the clerk to count
the ballot of any voter whose ballot was incorrectly rejected no
later
than two weeks before the certification of the statewide election
results.
During a hearing Wednesday, election officials testified that
reinstating voters removed from the database would be a logistical
nightmare, could crash the computer system and might jeopardize the
election. About 1 million people have already voted.
Before the two sides reached an agreement, Kane indicated that he
was weighing the impact of making a decision.
"I think there are places where the state went out of bounds on
removal of these names," he said, "but at the same time, what I am
concerned with primarily is trying to balance the equities so that I
am not creating more harm."
Some Voters in the Dark
Attorneys for the groups said that some voters had no idea that
they had been purged and therefore would not know that their ballots
would not count or that they might have to fill out a provisional
ballot - which takes longer to do and is subject to verification.
During the hearing, Colorado Springs resident Linda Townsend
Johnson and her husband, James Edward Johnson, testified that they
registered to vote at a mall in May after moving to Colorado Springs
from Mississippi.
They learned that they were no longer registered when they were
contacted by an attorney for the plaintiffs to find out if they knew
why they were removed from the rolls.
Despite receiving voter registration cards and mail-in ballots,
they were purged from the rolls because two people with their names
signed voter registration forms in September with a different
address.
The Johnsons testified that the signatures on the September
registrations did not belong to them and they had not moved.
Procedure, Error
But the county clerk's office, by procedure, removed their names
from the voting rolls after mail sent to the address that did not
belong to them was returned as undeliverable. The clerks then
erroneously told the Johnsons that their ballots would not count when
the couple went to inquire about their status.
The state plans to launch a voter-fraud investigation into how
the
Johnsons' names got registered in September. Attorneys for the
advocacy groups say the incident is more likely related to systematic
computer error.
Johnson said that although her voting records have since been
fixed, she is concerned for others who may not have their votes
counted.
"I am African-American and a woman, and I do not take for granted
that people suffered and did things for me to have that right," she
said about voting.
"What would have happened if I did not get a call?"
-------
• A number of groups have set up hotlines to help voters who are
having trouble casting a ballot. Among the most active is Just Vote
Colorado, which is part of a national voter protection effort. Call
them for help at 866-OUR-VOTE (687-8683
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