In a letter to sent to Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert Ortiz on Friday evening, Secretary of State Scott Gessler warned the county clerk that if he mailed ballots to inactive voters, he would be named in a lawsuit by Gessler’s office. Gessler, a Republican, maintains that the law does not allow for inactive voters to receive a mail ballot for the Nov. 1   election.  A lawsuit has been filed against Denver Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson, who has already mailed ballots to inactive military and overseas voters.

“Inactive” voters did not vote in the 2010 general election, did not vote in a subsequent election and have not returned postcards mailed to them asking whether they want a ballot.  Friday afternoon, Ortiz announced he would “reluctantly” comply with Gessler’s order not to mail ballots to 64 inactive military voters but indicated that the dispute of whether inactive voters should receive mail ballots was not over, The Pueblo Chieftain reported.