SandBoxBlogs: Citizen Center "Citizen Center Asks Governor Hickenlooper to Veto HB12-1036 (CORA/Elections) "

Marilyn Marks:

"Citizen Center has asked Governor Hickenlooper to veto HB-1036, the tortured merger successor to SB-155 (CORA and elections).

The letter transmitted to the Governor is linked here, and attached as well. Citizen Center also supports the veto request made by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in their poignant letter to Governor Hickenlooper. Colorado Voter Group also filed a request for a veto. We anticipate that other non-profit groups and concerned citizens will file similar requests.

The flawed legislative process resulted in a high-impact bill that by design of the sponsors (Heath/White/Court/Murray) allowed almost no debate, and ignored the expert input of the non-partisan Lawyers Committee Task Force on Elections.

It resulted in anti-transparency election process legislation that:

·    

•  degrades Colorado’s already substandard election transparency   
•  institutionalizes voter intimidation
•  strips ordinary citizens of their rights to verify elections, while creating a special insider status for partisan and special interests
• undermines voters’ constitutional rights to a secret ballot
• was passed in an illegitimate nonpublic process that intentionally obstructed  the expression of citizens’ objections. 

We have confidence that Governor Hickenlooper will undertake a serious review of the negative impacts of the bill on Colorado’s elections. We trust that he will conclude that this legislation is contrary to transparency principles of good government and use the power of his veto to send a message about the need for transparent and verifiable elections.  

We encourage you to join Citizen Center and others in requesting this veto on this matter that affects every Colorado voter.  You may fax your request to Governor Hickenlooper at (303) 866-2003.

Marilyn Marks

Marilyn@TheCitizenCenter.org

www.TheCitizenCenter.org

SandBoxBlogs: City of Glenwood Springs "DRAFT AGENDA: REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING APRIL 19, 2012"

Update May 14, 2012:
http://www.ci.glenwood-springs.co.us/Packet/agenda.htm


The subject of whether or not COGS 'leases' the marketing gimmick of 'Glen Wood' back from their hired tourism marketing vender GSCRA,  has been moved from agenda to agenda for months now.


Will this be still yet another publicly funded tourism marketing related topic that gets either shoved under the rug or secreted back behind the closed, bolted and security guarded doors of GCRA as so many similar issues have for over 25 years?


Where is COGS?  Do they care that public perception is so negative out there?  Or are they still influenced by the ludicrous spin that it is all the conspiracy plot of a 'pushed agenda' by a few that 'hang out on a certain (very popular) blog?


Either way, it is absolutely undeniable after over two decades of this kind of nonsense that our elected officials that run the City of Glenwood Springs are out of touch with public need for transparency and accountability. 
______________________________________________________
(See wk. of April 16 change by city council to move "Glen Wood" topic to meeting of  May 3, 2012)

(See public commentary on related story here)

OK, 'kids'.  Per your request, 'gws44 and glenwoodsprings 22'; here is your post on the upcoming city council meeting.

City of Glenwood Springs:
"Item #8:  Discussion and/or Action on Approval of License to Use Advertising Materials (Re: Glen Wood) with Chamber Resort Association...."  (Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetic pursuit and tracking of patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: KREX News 5 "Secret Ballots Prohibited "

Danielle Kreutter:
"DENVER- The measure that would prohibit state and local public government bodies from using secret ballots is now law.

Supporters of the new law say it will help transparency of decision making across the state. This law will work with the current open meetings law to ensure secret ballots are not being made...."

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Center Post Dispatch "Traceable ballots could sabotage Colorado elections in 2012"

(See related story and comments here)

"...The CORA block would prevent poll watchers, media, and ordinary citizens from examining ballots, and would delay and restrict examination of logs, poll books, and other essential election information in the event of a disputed election. This even after Colorado Sec. of State Scott Gessler won a lawsuit in August 2011 against Saguache County Clerk Melinda Myers, with District Judge Martin Gonzales ruling that ballots are public records and Gessler as well as ordinary citizens have a right to request and inspect them.

Judge Gonzales’ decision was later upheld by an appeals court decision granting Aspen election-integrity advocate Marilyn Marks the right to inspect and copy photocopies of ballots cast during her bid as a candidate for mayor of Aspen, Colorado, in 2009.

Despite these clear rulings by the courts, for the past several months the Colorado County Clerks and Recorder’s Association (CCCRA) has been lobbying to obstruct CORA requests for ballots, most of them made by Marks, and has openly questioned the Colorado Appeals Court decision. Further, the City of Aspen has appealed the appellate ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court...."
(Teresa L. Benns)

(Read more?  Click title.  Comment to discuss)

SandBox Comments: Aspen Times "Some digging might be in order"

'SandBox Nanny' has stayed out of the public flap over powerful business people, elected officers of courts, cities and counties (and) the public in multiple counties mud-wrestling over whether or not documents that touch the public or public funds in any way are subject to anyone asking for them through CORA or FOIA.

Today, however.  She's going to toss up the calm voice in all the emotional storm of Maurice Emmer on this  rock-solid win for the public on the merits of Sunshine Law.

One really does have to look long and hard at any municipality or government entity in Colorado that even hesitates in releasing public information.

"....Recently I met with the district attorney to find out whether he believed the city has engaged in criminal conduct. I did so because I had read several criminal provisions of the Colorado statutes that seemed to me might apply to various aspects of the city's conduct.

I found out that a former councilman has been requesting from the district attorney information (emails, etc.) about contacts citizens have made with his office. The district attorney is obligated to disclose this information under the same Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) that permits citizens to examine anonymous ballots and other public records.

Why is a former councilman interested in whether citizens are curious about potential criminal conduct by the city? Is it idle intellectual curiosity? Is it attempted intimidation? Is it the whim of the former councilman or is it instigated by people now sitting in City Hall?


I could ask for records from City Hall under CORA to find out more about who is behind this juvenile activity. So could you. CORA is available to everyone."
(Maurice Emmer, Aspen)

(Read more?  Click title.  Don't know rights under CORA?  You should. Comment to discuss)

"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

SandBox Comments: State of Elections "CO (secret ballots): Colorado’s super-secret ballots"

"Colorado is currently in the midst of a heated legal dispute over whether images of local ballots should be made available for public scrutiny in an election dispute. The controversy started in 2009, when Marilyn Marks lost the Aspen city mayoral election to Mick Ireland. Marks petitioned to view images of the anonymous ballots (sometimes referred to as TIFF files), but the city denied her request.

She then filed suit in state court under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), but the district court ruled against her. She appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, which reversed the lower court in September of this year, holding that the contents of the ballots should be released.

The substance of the issue is that the city contends that the images constitute ballots, and thus are barred from public release by the provision of Colorado’s constitution which protects the secrecy of ballots as well as local regulations as to the disposal of ballots. The Court of Appeals’ holding rejected both of these arguments, holding that the images are not ballots, and that the state constitutional protection only extends to the identity of the voter, not to the substance of the ballot. The court summarized its holding as follows..."
(Wesley Moore)


(Read more?  Click title.  Comment to discuss)

SandBox Comments: Glass Ballot Box "Blowing up Democracy with Unverifiable Elections"

A must read.

As usual, the depth of insight and the power of the information just reaches out and grabs your attention.

What started out for Marilyn Marks as a simple hometown request to view public information ballots has turned into an epic proportions battle to secure all Coloradans rights to election transparency.

Yes, a must read.

"Journalists may initially disbelieve that this story could be taking place in 21^st century Colorado, while Colorado is in the national spotlight as a 2012 swing state. However, the attached memo should provide adequate documentation of the developing situation here.  

Election officials are not only trying to roll the FOIA clock back 40 years, but far worse, many are claiming that their election processes  can trace voted ballots back to the individual voters, violating Colorado’s  constitutional guarantee of anonymous, untraceable ballots, which assure voter privacy. It is alarming that election officials in numerous counties unhesitatingly acknowledge their ability to know how individual voters voted.  Their claims are being made in an effort to promote state legislation to close down public and press access to voted ballots, on the theory that if ballots are open public documents, the press and public, (not just government insiders), will know how voters voted.

The co-authors and I hope that you will be as concerned as we are about the threats to voters’ civil rights and the  threatened dilution of the media’s first amendment rights and the public’s ability to verify its elections.   Please contact any of us for more information.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this issue."
(Marilyn Marks)

 

(Read this terrific memo?  Click title.  Comment to discuss)

"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."