As Secretary of State, I fully support this bill (the MOVE Act) and the efforts to aid our troops as they protect our country. In fact, well before this bill, I worked with Rep. Marsha Looper in 2009 to pass HB 09-1205 to improve access for military and other overseas voters. We are piloting with El Paso county to improve online delivery of ballots to our military and overseas voters for the current primary election.
But now the attacks against me have begun.
Because of some technicalities with this law, our county clerks would find it impossible to carry out one part of the law that requires ballots to be mailed 45 days before the election. Because Colorado has one of the latest primaries, it is not possible for the County Clerks to certify the results of the primary and then get the ballots for the general certified more than 45 days before the election. As soon as the MOVE Act was signed into law, I wrote an opinion piece supporting this new law - but noting that the date of our primary makes it impossible to implement in 2010.
When I presented my priorities to the Colorado Legislature during this past session, I expressed my concerns about the primary date. I asked the legislature to consider changing the time for the primary and notified them that if this was not done, we would need to ask for a waiver for 2010.
The current outcry from some of our legislators who are criticizing me are those same legislators who heard me express my concerns after this bill was signed. Weren't they listening? Or are they trying to manufacture something for purely political, partisan reasons?
It's typical for the smarmy, smearing Republicans in Colorado who have no interest in governing, only gaining and keeping power so that they can live off the public tax roles while they suppress others. Get our voters out and prevent their further destruction of our state.
