Face The State Staff Report
A Nov. 4 e-mail obtained by Face The State (PDF) shows that despite having no elections oversight authority, Gov. Bill Ritter's office contacted officials in Weld County alleging that commonly used election day security procedures constituted a possible effort to "intimidate" voters.
The e-mail, sent by Ritter chief legal counsel Trey Rogers to Weld Clerk and Recorder Steve Moreno, questions the presence of county Sheriff's deputies at a handful of the county's 34 voting centers.
Rogers contacted Moreno less than an hour after polls opened, at 7:39 am, asking him to "give me a call ASAP." Regarding the law enforcement presence at the polls, Rogers asks, "Couldn't his (sic) cause intimidation?"
Rogers indicated he had also already contacted Sherrif's Department Cmdr. Bill Spalding to confirm deputies' assignments at about five of the county's vote centers.
Moreno fielded a follow-up phone call shortly after receiving the e-mail. "[Rogers] told me the governor's office was being 'bombarded' with e-mails," Moreno recalls of the conversation. Rogers denies making that claim, and despite making a reference to multiple "calls" in his e-mail, now says he had received only a single call complaining of Weld County's election day security arrangements. He would not elaborate as to whom the call was from, citing an exemption to state open records laws for constituent communications.
Moreno said he had spoken earlier the same morning with lawyers for Barack Obama's campaign, and suspects the unpublished cell phone number Rogers reached him at had been shared by the Obama camp.
Rich Coolidge, spokesman for Secretary of State Mike Coffman, confirms his office had received a related election day complaint from the Obama legal team. "The concern was that [the security presence] was intimidating voters," he said, adding, "there was never anything formally filed."
Rogers defended the practice of fielding constituent election complaints internally, instead of forwarding callers to the Secretary of State or local election officials. "Where we saw it appropriate to get involved, we got involved by making a call," he said. "We do have a role to serve the constituents and to try to address their concerns when brought to our attention."
Moreno found the activity by an executive branch employee puzzling. "I definitely did find it strange that I was contacted by the governor," he said. "As I stated to Trey [Rogers], this is not something new for Weld County...we've been posting deputies at sites since the 2004 elections."
Ritter's office, Moreno added, isn't as well equipped as local Clerks and Recorders to handle voter's concerns. "You would think that [complaints] would be handled locally," he said.
With turnout near 90 percent in Weld County, Moreno was surprised at the suggestion that his office made an effort to dissuade voters from exercising their rights. "I don't know how I could have suppressed the vote with that kind of turnout," he said.
The county made no changes to its election administration plans in response to the inquiries.
And Tuesday's election provided one concrete example as to why it may be helpful to have law enforcement on hand as people voted. Officers were on hand for voting at the Greeley Ice Haus, one of the county's voting centers, when a voter became angry and threatened to return with a gun. In 2006, a situation at the voting center at Erie High School grew tense when a poll worker's boyfriend threatened violence. An officer was on hand to diffuse the conflict after the school's principal had requested in advance that there be a law enforcement presence at the polling place.
Weld County does not appear to be the only Colorado county employing some type of election day law enforcement security. At least two Denver Police officers were on hand at a drive-through mail ballot drop-off lane near the city's election headquarters Tuesday afternoon.
"It's not to intimidate," Moreno concluded. "Men and women who wear the badge are there for our safety and to uphold the law."