“Doubles-down” on Denver’s 2006 election failures

Today, Governor John Hickenlooper fundamentally overhauled Colorado’s elections.

Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Colorado’s chief election official, made the following statement:

“Unfortunately, today the governor rubber-stamped the agenda of partisan, special interests at the capitol. Most Coloradans are asking themselves why would the governor want to change a system that produced the third highest turnout in the country and better election integrity than ever before.

“Last year, Governor Hickenlooper promised to focus on compromise and moderation. But this bill is one-sided and extreme. He promised that local governments wouldn’t see their costs increase. But taxpayers in El Paso, Arapahoe, Elbert and other counties will see significantly higher elections costs.

“Just as bad, this bill is a rush to failure. Under Mayor Hickenlooper, Denver saw a meltdown in the 2006 election. Instead of learning from those mistakes, he’s doubled-down on failure by repeating Denver’s mistakes statewide.

“Our voters demand integrity in our elections and I’m determined to stand up for them. Though this bill undercuts our election integrity efforts, we owe it to Coloradans to do the best job possible. Voters shouldn’t be concerned their votes will be cancelled by an ineligible vote. I will work to make it easy to vote but tough to cheat.”