Over 6,000 Voters Not Registered Due to Unchecked Box (CO)

[struggle4progress]

Source: KRDO

Updated: Oct 13, 2008 03:41 PM

DENVER - With only a week left before the start of early voting, about 6,000 people who registered to vote aren't eligible to cast regular ballots yet ...

Read more: http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=9171600

---

Oct 13, 2008 5:59 pm US/Mountain
Box Not Checked On Thousands Of Registration Forms
By Colleen Slevin, Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) ― ... At issue is the part of the voter registration form that requires voters to either enter a driver's license or state identification number, or at least the first four digits of their Social Security numbers if they don't have state IDs. The form also asks voters to check a box if they don't have a state ID.

Election watchdog groups say the box check, required by state law, is an overly strict interpretation of federal law that they haven't seen in other states. On Monday, they called on Secretary of State Mike Coffman to automatically register people who have provided a Social Security number but didn't check the box. They said Coffman also could take other steps, including letting people complete their forms at early voting locations. They estimate that about 10,000 voters in the state could be affected.

"With such a close election, this many votes will have an impact," said Jenny Flanagan, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, one of eight state and local groups that sent a letter to Coffman asking for changes ...

Sarah Brannon of the Fair Elections Legal Network .... said voters who have already provided a Social Security number to verify identity shouldn't be kept from voting with a regular ballot because of a formality. Brannon said that registration forms of other states she's reviewed tell voters that if they don't have state IDs, they can provide their Social Security numbers. Those forms don't ask for an affirmation that those voters don't have state IDs ...

http://cbs4denver.com/politics/registration.forms.colorado.2.839548.html

[Night_Nurse]

1. Mike Coffman, Republican - of course...

A tidbit from Wikipedia:

“Through open records requests and other research, Colorado Ethics Watch has identified significant blocks of time on the official calendar of Secretary of State Mike Coffman that were either used for meetings with potential funders of his congressional campaign, or are unaccounted for as private appointments and meetings. In the meantime, it is unclear whether Secretary Coffman is meeting critical goals and deadlines required of him as Colorado Secretary of State.

Secretary Coffman announced his candidacy for Congress on November 5, 2007. According to Secretary Coffman’s calendar, between October 1, 2007 and January 31, 2008, he raised at least $36,000 for his congressional campaign from meetings with donors during his work week and some during official business hours. In addition, Ethics Watch identified more than 100 hours of unaccounted work time on Secretary Coffman’s calendar labeled as private appointments or meetings.

“Secretary Coffman’s official duties are clearly taking a back seat to his congressional campaign,” said Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Ethics Watch. “It’s no wonder he has been heavily criticized by both parties for botching the voter certification process and setting the state up for a potentially disastrous election this fall. Legal guidelines are in place for a reason. He must either learn to follow them or decide which role he prefers -- congressional candidate or Colorado Secretary of State."

As Secretary of State, Mike Coffman is responsible for facilitating and enabling all necessary systems for fair and efficient elections in Colorado, including the state’s voter registration database. His efforts in this area have been highly controversial, putting the outcome of November’s elections in doubt.<2> Secretary Coffman was also the subject of a state audit in December 2007 that identified several items of non-compliance in areas of voting and elections.”

[emlev]

23. Call on Coffman's opponent, Hank Eng, to take the Standing For Voters Pledge!

Standing For Voters is asking candidates to take the following election integrity pledge:

I, _________________, pledge to use my candidacy, whenever feasible, to advance the preservation of democracy. I will officially challenge the results of the election as provided by law if the combination of election conditions, incident reports, and announced election results calls into question the reliability of the official vote count. Should another candidate be declared the winner in my race, I will wait until all valid votes are counted and all serious challenges resolved before conceding defeat.

Please add your voice to others specifically asking Eng to take the pledge, given that his opponent in the Congressional race is also Colorado's chief election official, Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman. It's important that Hank English and other candidates prepare now to challenge elections where there are significant irregularities.

Contact info:
Hank Eng for U.S. Congress Headquarters
[phone]
1500 W. Littleton Blvd., Ste. 124
Littleton, CO 80120
[e-mail]
Campaign Website

[dipsydoodle]

2. This a farce

In the UK we simply get a form in the mail to fill in each August or thereabouts which needs to be returned by mail to the local council by the October or registered online - that keeps us eligible to vote for the next year for all local and parliamentary elections.

[MrsBrady]

3. yes, well, but that would be nice and neat and legal

but then again, they don't really want us voting.

[krkaufman]

5. Which is admirable. But our players aren't so altruistic.

Take, for example, Paul Weyrich, the godfather of direct mail campaigning for the Republicans...

"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

Quotes like this *should* be the death of a political party, but you don't hear any coverage of such statements in our corporate media.

[stlsaxman]

6. no, this is America.

... and, yes- this is a farce.

[fasttense]

4. All over America, Republicons are trying to prevent people from voting.

On the front page of DU alone there were stories from six different states of how Republicons have tried to prevent mostly Democrats and minorities from voting. So far it includes Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina, West Virginia, Florida and Indiana.

Once again Republicons stand in the way of American Democracy. If they want to live in a dictatorship, they should move to Dubai with Cheney's friends.

[a la izquierda]

7. For the love of peter...

if I can make a secure purchase online, and have everything about me verified by the government to become a bazillion dollars in student loan debt, why the heck can't we vote online????? :mad:
I had to vote absentee because I'm out of the country. The rules are insane for international absentee voting in Oklahoma...the ballot had to be postmarked in the US. Can you believe that? I'M VOTING INTERNATIONAL ABSENTEE BECAUSE I'M NOT IN THE DAMNED COUNTRY!!!
How stupid!

Voter registration forms are needlessly complicated and probably should be federalized so that everyone, no matter where they live, knows what to expect.

[bertman]

8. I hate to say this, BUT anyone who fills out a voter registration form and does not take

the time to CAREFULLY read and comply with the instructions does not deserve to vote. If you cannot comprehend the instructions on a voter registration form, or if you cannot follow those instructions, how the hell are you going to make an educated decision about whom to vote for?

I want as many Democrats as possible to register and vote, but I also want every American who votes to be smart enough and well-informed enough to know what the candidates stand for and WHY they are voting for the ones they check off on the ballot.

The Repukes do not have a monopoly on ignorant, uninformed, dumbasses in their party. I personally know several voters who are Democrats who couldn't tell you jack shit about Obama's policies versus McCain's. Or how the Democratic party is different from the Republican party. (Come to think of it, nowadays, I sometimes have trouble distinguishing the two, but that's another thread).

A democracy requires an informed and active citizenry to survive and thrive. This election has gotten more voters interested and involved, but there are still a whole lot of them who are just knee-jerk Repukes or knee-jerk Dems, ready to believe whatever anybody tells them. In my opinion, they are probably the same ones who don't have enough gumption to follow the instructions on the registration form.

[Patiod]

9. Maybe in a perfect world

Where everyone has plenty of time for every little bit of paperwork that perfect world required.

But I was registering people who were hurrying in and out of the grocery store, and we're standing over a clipboard in 90 degree heat, filling out a lot of information and reading VERY small print. Sometimes people are doing it without their reading glasses. There are blocks the voter fills out, and blocks for the county to fill in - the forms are anything but clear, simple and intuitive, and even bright, informed people miss things.

This is not a house they're buying (although god knows people should be reading their mortgages a little more closely), it's voter registration.

[Turn CO Blue]

10. You don't HATE to say it. You've posted this before, haven't you?

How dare you! How dare you criticize us all here without having even seen the three-in-one form that most of us used to register voters?! The form is all in 11 and 10 point font except for that one little line about the soc which is in a teency little 4 point font. The line in 4 point font by the box says to check it if you do not have a driver's license, but it also says that you can just give the last four of your social as ID. It's ambiguous (possibly intentional) and the form has an "OR" between the three choices of ID. Driver's license - OR - gov ID - OR - social security.

Well, many people do have a driver's license but did not have it with them (on their person) at many times when they were approached at the park, on the street, on campus, etc. by a person with a clipboard. So they opted for the last "OR" choice.

And the vast majority of people using the three-in-one form were NOT NEW VOTERS. They were only updating their address or requesting a mail-in ballot (which is a new process here in Colorado).

Do you realize that the people you are criticizing as "not smart enough" (your words) are the HUNDREDS OF CAMPAIGN EMPLOYEES AND VOLUNTEERS ACROSS THE ENTIRE STATE - and not the voters? These are the folks who did the vast majority of the registering in the last two months.

So screw this "concern" of yours. You haven't seen the form and if you haven't, then you DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.

[Frances]

11. As I recall the Repub Party in Ohio

mailed out absentee ballots that did not include a similar box. The Ohio person in charge of voting (a Dem) allowed those ballots to count.

That's the difference between Dems and Repubs.

[bertman]

17. Turn CO Blue, in your righteous anger you are making an erroneous assumption,but the answer

to your question is NO, I have never written this before. I have been reading the whiners' comments about how the nasty old elections officials aren't letting people get away with an improperly-filled out form and I've had it with listening to that shit.

It's not a "concern". It's an important point for every participant in a democracy to understand. I'm sorry if the people who are registering or re-registering are such an ill-informed bunch that they don't have a clue that the Repukes are doing everything they can to stop us Democrats from voting. And especially if they are campaign volunteers, they of all people, should be hyper-aware that every form will be scrutinized so the incomplete or incorrect ones can be thrown out. It's not like this is new news that the Repukes will challenge every potential voter.

I don't give a damn if they don't have their driver's license or their social security card or whatever with them at the time. The bottom line is IF YOU FILL OUT THE GODDAM FORM, FILL IT OUT FULLY AND CORRECTLY. If the volunteers who are registering these voters don't have the time or the inclination to explain how important it is to be accurate and complete, then they're not doing their jobs. Being a volunteer does not mean that you can do whatever the fuck you want and disregard the CRITICALLY IMPORTANT RULES for registering.

By the way, I have worked with volunteers registering and getting out the vote, so I know for a fact that some of them are NOT smart enough or savvy enough or maybe educated enough to fill out the forms themselves, much less help someone else do it. It's sad but true that a lot of well-meaning individuals volunteer to do things that they might not be good at. Some of them are enthusiastic but have no clue about the importance of what they're doing or how one unchecked box can screw up the registration. Maybe that's the fault of the individual or the campaign staff who are setting them up and training them to do the job. Either way, somebody did not do their job RIGHT, so the voter is paying the price.

As far as my not having seen the form, what does that have to do with anything? If the form is so screwed up why weren't the volunteers or registrars shown where the potential problem areas would be so they could check to be sure the voter had not messed up?

[uncle ray]

14. right now there is one clear difference between the parties.

Democrats want people to vote, Repubs do not. is that not clear?

look at the registration form, it's on the colorado elections website. it is not clear that you NEED to check the box stating you do not have a state id IF you use your SSN. the section is filled with lots of "or"s. the form is not compliant with state law. it should clearly state that you MUST check this box IF you check THAT box.

this has nothing to do with ignorant voters, it has everything to do with republicans trying to stop people from voting, just like you are trying to stop people from voting.

i too want well informed voters, but a trick question on a voter registration form is not the way to test people.

if you are having trouble seeing the difference in the parties, it is not a topic for another thread, that sir, is a topic for another website.

[bertman]

18. uncle ray, I'm having no trouble at all seeing the difference in the parties. Where'd you come up

with that?

If Democrats are registering voters and the forms are shitty forms drawn up by Repukes, then it's the responsibility of the Dems to educate the potential voters as to HOW the forms are screwed up and make sure they fill them out correctly. If we don't do that then WE DEMS are the ones who are screwed up because we know the Repukes are always trying to steal the vote.

I just love the way you assume that because I disagree with you that I am "trying to stop people from voting." I've donated a lot of my hard-earned cash to Obama and Democratic candidates all over the country, and I've manned phone banks and done my share of helping with Obama rallies. And I have personally turned several Repukes into Obama voters by showing them the difference between the parties and the candidates. After 40 years of supporting Democratic candidates I think I am damn well aware of the differences. But I'm not so naive and stupid to think that just because you get somebody to sign a registration form that's filled out incorrectly, they're going to get to vote. Now that IS a guaranteed way to keep people from voting.

P.S. I'll decide what is the topic for another thread or another website, thank you very much.

[uncle ray]

21. right out of post #8.

i shouldn't have to quote you.

it is the responsibility of colorados secretary of state to have the forms printed so they are clear and according to state law. the registration of voters should not be a partisan affair, the secretary of state should not be a partisan position. this "glitch" in registration wasn't even an issue until the registration deadline had passed and voters started finding their forms rejected.

your basic argument was that stupid people that can't fill out a form shouldn't be allowed to vote. deflect blame all you want onto republicans who made toe forms or democrats who don't do enough to counter the repugs efforts, but your position is shameful. i don't disagree with you on desiring more well informed voters, but i don't think anybody should be discouraged or discounted from voting, especially for such petty reasons as a check box on a form that thousands didn't understand.

[Turn CO Blue]

12. If the county clerks for those voters don't send a letter

out immediately informing those voters of the problems with their forms, then I would say that they haven't met their obligations.

If there is problem with any mail-in ballots, then the clerk must mail a letter that day informing the voter that there is a problem and give the address of the clerk's office so that the voter can go in to correct it.

It seems to me that the county clerks have the same obligation (to send a letter) with these new voters with problems with the registration forms.

I'm calling the SOS.

[xxqqqzme]

13. there are 2 places on a California

Voter Reg form that are problematic - the first is the driver's license/state ID OR last 4 digits of social security number. The other is place of birth. People will fill in the city when it clearly requests the state/country. When I trained voter reg people, I always pointed out the two problem areas. We also used a green highlighter to designate all the spaces to be completed.

[AndyTiedye]

15. Of Course It Will Have an Impact. That's Why The Repiggie S.O.S Did It!

Colorado is the next Ohio.

[EFerrari]

19. In one of Greg's pieces, he reports that 1/5 of CO voters were purged

from the rolls.

[pnutbutr]

16. following directions

seems to be a problem for many well into their adult years.

[halobeam]

20. If CO is the "next OH".... this has to get fixed.

kick and rec....

If I can help in anyway... someone let me know.

[Endangered Specie]

22. Whats bad is that people who are recruited/volunteer to register voters

didnt know this!

In NC, when I volunteer, 50% of the time people give me a registration form that would likely get rejected, you gotta look over it with a fine tooth comb... Ive seen everything, the form is over complicated and hard to read.