By Denver Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz
If election ballots were $100 bills, voters would be a lot more careful with them. They’d keep them secure and make certain they ended up in the hands of the proper elections officials. They wouldn’t blithely hand them over to third-party collectors who appeared on the doorstep drenched in smiles.
People who do that are “ballot chasers,” political operatives and campaign workers who ingratiate themselves with voters by volunteering to help them fill out complex ballots or offer to deliver the marked ballots to the polls to save a trip or a stamp.
Smell a problem there? A weakness of our election-by-mail system is that once a ballot gets to the voter’s kitchen table, mischief can begin. Just how much influence can a ballot chaser exert? And if the chaser collects a marked ballot, will it really arrive at the polls? Will the voter remember to check? Where’s the audit trail?
I proposed changes to Denver’s election law to correct the problem for city elections, but a majority of council members refused to take action. My thanks to Councilman Brown and Councilwoman Johnson for standing with me.
State law limits to five the number of ballots a third party is allowed to deliver. Secretary of State rules say for elections conducted entirely by mail, only household members should deliver the five ballots. But if Denver’s experience is any indicator, no one checks whether the ballots are from a willing family member or a political pro. Or whether the person dropping off five ballots has done so at a slew of other collection stations elsewhere. Without cross-checking or verifying relationships, who knows?
Now comes House Bill 1186. A [state legislative] committee amendment actually expands the five-ballot loophole to 10 ballots, delighting political operatives. That’s going the wrong way. We’ve got to close the ballot chaser loophole and do it now. The state should flatly prohibit third parties from collecting marked ballots except for trained or certified election officials, a family member serving the immediate household, or a disabled person who needs help. The same security measures should apply to all ballots mailed to the voter.
If the state did that, cities would likely follow suit. They should. Voting ought to be convenient but not to the point of undermining ballot security. The integrity of the system is essential. We can’t let ballot chasers or anyone else undermine it in the guise of good intentions.
Ballots are the currency of democracy. Cherish them.
Denver Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz represents Council District 2 in Southwest Denver
Demand Defeat of House Bill 1186
On February 24th, 2009 clifwest says:
House Bill 1186 is an open invitation to voter intimidation, ballot theft and vote buying. Chicago allows a similar practice where ballot collectors are allowed to go door to door to "help" people to vote, by "collecting" their ballots for delivery - It is a disaster.
If people are too apathetic to mail their ballot, they should not vote, since they obviously do not care enough about our democracy and future to be informed voters.
The State of Colorado plans to provide for free prepaid postal return delivery of mail in ballots, to County election offices.
Jefferson and many other counties have procedures citizens can use to determine if their voted mail in ballot was received and whether the required signature match was approved or rejected.
Citizens should hand deliver ther mail in ballots to a locked ballot box, protected by a security camera.
If voters are umable to hand deliver their marked ballot to a locked ballot box protected with security cameras, they should send it by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested.
Our democracy's founding fathers pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to establish our freedoms. People sacrificed, fought and died at Trenton, Saratoga, Manassas, Gettysburg, Antietam, Anzio, Normandy, Bastogne, Gaudalcanal, Tarawa, Midway,Iwo Jima and Okinawa to preserve the freedom we inherited. We owe it to them and to future generations to restore verifiable, transparent, accurate elections.