Vote Solution to be Unveiled Today

Gov. Bill Ritter and legislative leaders will hold a news conference early this afternoon to announce a plan for running the autumn elections.

This morning, at an oversight hearing conducted by the House State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee, Secretary of State Mike Coffman said he would support a proposal to conduct an all-mail election in November.

He also said the legislature should any counties desiring to permit in-person paper balloting in addition to mail balloting to do so.

There are several proposals aimed at resolving the voting quandary pending in the General Assembly.

These include HB 1155, sponsored by Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver, Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, and Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, which would allow Coffman to re-test the electronic voting machines that were decertified for use last month.

HB 1155 was endorsed by the House State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee on Jan. 17. It now moves to the House floor for the first of two votes needed to move the bill on to the Senate.

In addition, Gordon indicated before the start of the session that he would introduce a bill to permit use of traditional paper ballots, and possibly an all-mail election process, in order to sidestep Coffman's Dec. 17 decertification order.