Pueblo clerk: Gessler ‘denying’ deployed military right to vote – Fox 31 KDVR.com
DENVER — Accused of waging a “war on voting,” Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler is sticking to his guns on his position that Colorado clerks are not allowed to send mail ballots to any and all registered voters on the ‘inactive voter’ list, including members of the military who are overseas.
After filing a lawsuit against Denver over Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson’s plan to mail ballots to ‘inactive’ voters, Gessler is forcing Pueblo County not to mail ballots to 64 inactive voters who are overseas in combat, which may be a violation of federal law.
Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert Ortiz issued a statement Friday afternoon saying that his office will “reluctantly” comply with Gessler’s order but is also considering taking legal action against the Secretary of State.
“This is not over,” Ortiz said. “Pueblo County is currently weighing our legal options including taking the issue to court. The Secretary of State effectively has denied 64 active military personnel the opportunity to vote.”
In Washington, the Justice Department is now considering whether Gessler is violating the Voting Rights Act, after a request Tuesday by two Democratic congressman who believe Gessler’s position is discriminatory and likely to disenfranchise a higher percentage of minority voters.
Gessler, who was an attorney working on behalf of Republican clients on election and campaign finance cases prior to taking over as Secretary of State in January, is sticking to his position that state statute requires clerks only to mail ballots to ‘active’ voters. Democrats, however, are convinced that Gessler is exploiting the ambiguity in a poorly written law in a partisan effort to lower turnout in predominantly Democratic counties.
Gessler has defended his view by saying he’s just trying to reduce the likelihood of voter fraud, even asserting on the radio Wednesday that “there’s a pretty high incidence of fraud in inactive-voters returned ballots”, a claim he’s offered no evidence to back up.
In a fundraising email sent Friday on behalf of the Democratic House Majority Project, state Rep. Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, accused Gessler of taking part in a coordinated GOP effort to disenfranchise voters.
“There is a sophisticated, coordinated Republican War On Voting happening today in the United States, and Colorado citizens are not going unscathed,” Duran writes. “The Colorado Republican machine is determined to block access to the ballot box for thousands upon thousands of voters–using fear, phony statistics, and racially-charged anti-immigration rhetoric to create roadblocks for eligible citizens to exercise the most basic of American rights.”
“This is simply about making sure that all 64 Colorado counties are following state law,” Gessler told FOX31 Denver in an interview earlier this month.
The law itself states: “the designated election official shall mail to each active registered elector.”
Gessler has said “there’s no ambiguity” in the law, but his argument would clearly have more weight were the law to state that clerks “only” mail to each active registered elector.
Voters wind up on the ‘inactive’ list after failing to vote in the past general election and for failing to respond to a subsequent mailer from their county clerk attempting to verify their active status.
Clerks like Johnson and Ortiz both take a more liberal position on the statute in erring on the side of voter access.
“This is a democracy,” Johnson told FOX31 Denver last week. “We need to protect the right of people to vote.”
“No one is being disenfranchised,” Gessler said. “Any inactive voter can take steps to change their status to active, and they can go in person and vote on election day.”
When Democrats pointed out that the highest concentrations of inactive Denver voters live in more diverse, low-income neighborhoods like Montbello and southwest Denver, Gessler fired back that they were “playing the race card.”
A Denver judge will decide the case next Friday, Oct. 7 in court, but Gessler may have other legal battles on his hands.
Ortiz argues that Gessler’s interpretation of state law is forcing him to violate a federal one, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986 and the Military and Overseas Voting Empowerment Act of 2009, both of which established timelines and procedures to make sure service members can exercise their right to vote while overseas.
“It’s only right that Pueblo residents who are serving our country in the military should have the chance to cast their ballot here at home,” Ortiz said. “Military men and women should be given every opportunity to participate in the democracy they’re defending.
“They may be listed as ‘inactive’ voters in our system, but when they’re on active duty how can we deny them a ballot?”