City of Denver let ex-cons work during Nov. 2008 election

This is not a story about the restoration of felon voting rights, which is a Democratic hot-button issue. Rather, this is a story about whether Denver had a policy in place before the November 2008 elections which allowed the Elections Division to hire felons after getting a positive hit from their Colorado Bureau of Investigations check.

E-mails from Elections Director, Michael Scarpello indicate even if there is a positive hit -meaning someone has been convicted of a felony- those persons can be hired to work the city's paper-ballot elections.


"We think that with voting machines, which are harder to tamper with, felons might be ok," said election reformer, Jan Tyler. "But with paper ballots and access to voter lists, we think it's wrong to have felons involved with the elections process."

Those feelings are borne out by Arapahoe Elections boss, Nancy Doty, who says, "We won't have felons working any of our elections under any circumstances."

While Tyler says she is all for ex-cons being allowed to become productive members of society, she just questions the city and the policy they say that allows felons to work elections and have access to paper ballots.

"In fact, while the election was in November of 2008, the ordinance allowing the division to hire ex-cons went into law January 1, 2009 that's seems to raise questions," said Tyler.

She says sources are also telling her that at least one of the felons racked up a cell phone bill of more than $1,000 which taxpayers will have to pay.

"I guess the question is why, with so many citizens out of work, did the division have to use ex-cons to run the elections and who made the determination as to which ones with positive hits could work the most important election in modern times," asked Tyler.

Politician's are aware of the felon population because there are 701 for every 100-thousand people. Enough, according to Tyler, to sway any election.

Only two states, Vermont and Maine let felons vote, but around 13 states allow felons to vote once their debt to society is paid.