The recommendation for a paper ballot mandate reflects the overwhelming evidence across the country that electronic voting machines are unreliable and insecure for the counting and recording of votes. Voter Action urges that the Colorado legislature adopt this recommendation with an amendment requiring that this mandate become effective for the 2010 elections.
Voter Action is proud of its role in launching the critical lawsuit which led to last week's vote by the Colorado Election Reform Commission. In June 2006, a group of Colorado voters, with the support of Voter Action, filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court challenging the Colorado Secretary of State's certification of certain electronic voting systems (DREs) and seeking a court order to prevent the use of such systems in Colorado elections (Conroy v. Dennis). The lawsuit alleged that the use of DRE systems in Colorado violated the plaintiffs' fundamental right to vote under the Colorado Consititution and that the systems contained illegal interpreted code prohibited by Colorado law.
In September 2006, the Denver District Court ordered the Colorado Secretary of State to enact meaningful security standards for electronic voting machines and to retest the four systems certified by the Secretary of State before authorizing their use in any future elections. Judge Lawrence Manzanares said the Secretary of State's office failed to develop minimum security standards as required by state law, and did an "abysmal" job of documenting the testing during the certification process. In February 2008, the Secretary of State, after intially decertifying two systems based on new testing reversed himself and announced that he was recertifying the electronic voting machines for use in Colorado's elections.
These developments led the Colorado legislature to pass a law last year establishing the Election Reform Commission charged with reviewing all voting systems in the state and making recommendations for any changes. The Commission includes Voter Action's legal partner Paul Hultin of the Colorado law firm of Wheeler Trigg Kennedy, who served as lead counsel in the Conroy v. Dennis case. Voter Action commends Mr. Hultin for his crucial leadership on this matter and his steadfast commitment to protecting the right to vote of all Colorado voters.
The Colorado Election Reform Commission's recommendation that Colorado shift to a statewide system of voter-marked paper ballots represents a major step forward for the election integrity movement in Colorado and across the country.
 
To view the letter from Senator Ken Gordon, Chair of the Election Reform Commission,
Click Here
To view the Election Reform Commission's Final Report,
Click Here