Objection Noted – Now Get Busy: Colorado SoS Implements New Election Law on Accelerated Timeline

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One of this year’s highest-profile disagreements has been the dispute in Colorado over HB 1303, which mandates same-day registration and expanded vote-by-mail, pitted Secretary of State Scott Gessler (who opposed it) against most of the state’s local election officials before the bill was enacted earlier this year.

Now, all of a sudden, Gessler’s office is facing the need to implement the new law on an accelerated schedule. The Denver Post has the story:

The law took effect July 1, and most assumed it would first apply to the primaries and the general election in 2014. Recall elections against state Senate President John Morse in El Paso County and Sen. Angela Giron in Pueblo mean Gessler’s staff has weeks, not months, to figure out how to make the system work without chaos for county clerks and fraud in the elections’ outcomes, a concern Gessler and his staff voiced before the bill was passed. Voters have had the option of choosing mail ballots for years — and most voters choose it — but now everyone will get a mail ballot, or choose to show up in-person at vote centers, if they wish.

This is going to be a closely-watched story of an elected policymaker coping with a bill he opposed – with voters likely having an opportunity next year to assess how well he did:

Gessler’s spokesman, Rich Coolidge, said if the recall elections continue to move forward — lawyers are involved — mail ballots will go out, same day registration will be allowed and there will be vote centers for every 30,000 people in the county, even though the legislative districts make up only a fraction of the county.

Gessler is in an odd political position. He opposed House Bill 1303, vehemently argued against it before the state legislature and maintains that his staff was cut out of the process to draft the legislation.

“This is a flawed bill, and it’s an example of bad government,” he told a House committee in April.

Now he’s in charge of a complicated new law he never liked, under a punishing deadline. However, making elections run smoothly will be a big part of the record in office he will run on next year, whether he chooses re-election as secretary or state or to take on Hickenlooper for governor.

“We’re not looking at implementation politically,” Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert said Tuesday in a conference call with The Denver Post to discuss the work left in order to make such major changes to the state election system.

She added, “While we may not philosophically agree with every aspect, we certainly want to work collaboratively to make sure it’s implemented correctly.”

For their part, the county clerks who supported the bill are optimistic that whatever issues arise will be surmountable:

Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Pam Anderson, president of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said such discussions about how to make new laws work is not unusual. She said she was “supremely confident” elections would be improved, not hurt, by the new law.

“I’m feeling very confident this is going to be a good experience for our voters,” said Anderson, A Republican who was elected Jefferson County’s clerk and recorder in 2006.

Transitioning to any new election system is always a challenge – and now Colorado is going to try to do it in an atmosphere charged with partisan, executive-legislative and state-local tension.

This should be interesting.