DENVER - A bill, yet to be introduced at the State Capitol, is already creating controversy -- because opponents worry it could create havoc come November's election.
The 68-page draft bill, likely to be sponsored by House Speaker Terrance Carroll, D- Denver, and introduced later this week, would allow Colorado voters to register just three days before the 2010 election.
Currently, Coloradans must register to vote up until 29 days before an election. Carroll says allowing a longer registration period will open the door to greater voter turnout. But Republicans see it as a blatant attempt to bolster Democratic voter ranks ahead of an important election.
"I think it's 100 percent politically-motivated," said state Rep. Carole Murray, R-Castle Rock, the former Douglas County Clerk and Recorder. "I can't understand how someone would present such dramatic change to election law just short of an upcoming election, unless they had some ulterior motives."
Carroll, who is term-limited out of the legislature at the end of the year, dismissed the criticism.
"My response to that is: what are you afraid of? What are you afraid of allowing more people to have the opportunity to vote?" Carroll said. "That says something about their political ideology if they're afraid of more people voting because they may vote in a more progressive way."
The issue of voting rights is deeply personal to Carroll, who said his relatives in southern Maryland were denied the right to vote or forced to pay poll taxes in the days of Jim Crow.
"I think it's important that, in this country, that we allow any person who's eligible to vote, who's a citizen, that we afford them every opportunity to be registered, and every opportunity to go to the ballot and vote," Carroll said. "And modern technology enables us to do this. This bill is way to look at: where are we in 2010? Not where were we in 1950?"
According to Carroll, the SCORE system that now links all 64 county clerks' offices, has the potential to detect voter registration fraud quickly enough to reduce the burden on the clerks themselves.
"Every single county clerk and recorder is part of that system," Carroll said. "When you have technology like that, the 30-day window really makes no sense. Because we can red flag them, can catch folks who acting in fraudulent ways early on.
"The 30-day period is a totally arbitrary time frame based on old technology."
But Murray's experience as a clerk leads her to believe that the system isn't ready for prime time.
"This system has never been used live during an election period," Murray said. "So until that system is made more robust, we're only opening our door to fraud in elections in this state."
Although the Secretary of State's office has been involved in drafting the bill, the county clerks who manage elections did not and are just now seeing it for the first time. The clerks are planning a meeting to discuss whether to support the legislation and the possible costs of pulling some of the changes together by November.
Although Murray thinks they're unlikely to support such major changes to election law with an election just seven months away.
"It could be that the people who are behind this bill want to create chaos, so that when they lose an election they can challenge the election," Murray said. "This is the way elections are done in Cuba, not in Colorado."
Interactive coverage of Colorado Politics
The 68-page draft bill, likely to be sponsored by House Speaker Terrance Carroll, D- Denver, and introduced later this week, would allow Colorado voters to register just three days before the 2010 election.
Currently, Coloradans must register to vote up until 29 days before an election. Carroll says allowing a longer registration period will open the door to greater voter turnout. But Republicans see it as a blatant attempt to bolster Democratic voter ranks ahead of an important election.
"I think it's 100 percent politically-motivated," said state Rep. Carole Murray, R-Castle Rock, the former Douglas County Clerk and Recorder. "I can't understand how someone would present such dramatic change to election law just short of an upcoming election, unless they had some ulterior motives."
Carroll, who is term-limited out of the legislature at the end of the year, dismissed the criticism.
"My response to that is: what are you afraid of? What are you afraid of allowing more people to have the opportunity to vote?" Carroll said. "That says something about their political ideology if they're afraid of more people voting because they may vote in a more progressive way."
The issue of voting rights is deeply personal to Carroll, who said his relatives in southern Maryland were denied the right to vote or forced to pay poll taxes in the days of Jim Crow.
"I think it's important that, in this country, that we allow any person who's eligible to vote, who's a citizen, that we afford them every opportunity to be registered, and every opportunity to go to the ballot and vote," Carroll said. "And modern technology enables us to do this. This bill is way to look at: where are we in 2010? Not where were we in 1950?"
According to Carroll, the SCORE system that now links all 64 county clerks' offices, has the potential to detect voter registration fraud quickly enough to reduce the burden on the clerks themselves.
"Every single county clerk and recorder is part of that system," Carroll said. "When you have technology like that, the 30-day window really makes no sense. Because we can red flag them, can catch folks who acting in fraudulent ways early on.
"The 30-day period is a totally arbitrary time frame based on old technology."
But Murray's experience as a clerk leads her to believe that the system isn't ready for prime time.
"This system has never been used live during an election period," Murray said. "So until that system is made more robust, we're only opening our door to fraud in elections in this state."
Although the Secretary of State's office has been involved in drafting the bill, the county clerks who manage elections did not and are just now seeing it for the first time. The clerks are planning a meeting to discuss whether to support the legislation and the possible costs of pulling some of the changes together by November.
Although Murray thinks they're unlikely to support such major changes to election law with an election just seven months away.
"It could be that the people who are behind this bill want to create chaos, so that when they lose an election they can challenge the election," Murray said. "This is the way elections are done in Cuba, not in Colorado."
Interactive coverage of Colorado Politics
