Face the State

She also never filed complaint with Secretary of State
Face The State Staff Report

A Face The State investigation has revealed that one of the individuals alleging voter fraud against a campaign devoted to ending racial and gender preferences is a longtime liberal activist with ties to multiple organizations promoting such policies.

On April Fool’s Day, Dara Burwell spoke at a widely covered Capitol press conference, alleging that she was misled into signing a petition in support of Amendment 46, the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, an effort certified for the November general election ballot by Secretary of State Mike Coffman, and one that seeks to abolish the use of gender and race preferences in government, education, and public hiring decisions.

But as FTS has learned, Burwell is not one of the three individuals who filed formal complaints with Coffman's office. When asked about her decision not to file a complaint, Burwell responded, "I haven't filed an official complaint because I'm working through Colorado Unity and trying to decide the best course of action. Still trying to understand what the Secretary of State's office is going to do. I'm still hopeful that there is some kind of mechanism there that will remove my [signature]."

Coffman has said that there is no formal way to remove an individual's signature from a signed petition. Under Colorado law, a citizen's initiative must garner more than 76,000 valid signatures to be accepted for placement on a general election ballot. CCRI backers turned in more than 128,000 in early March.

Burwell is alleging fraud based on the fact that the young black man who approached her for support of the initiative said it would help minorities. She maintains that he was being deceitful because he didn’t indicate that the initiative would explicitly ban race and gender preferences in state government.

“Given what he said, the language of the petition and also our shared experience as black people in this country, I believed myself to be signing a pro-affirmative action measure,” she told the Rocky Mountain News. “I signed the petition, handed it back to him and in turn he gave me a flier to a hip-hop event — which I felt was further confirmation of that recognition of shared experience.”

As FTS has learned, however, Burwell is very knowledgeable about diversity issues in Colorado, having been a leader in the state's pro-Affirmative Action movement. A 2004 “Focus on Diversity” newsletter, published by the University of Colorado’s Office of Diversity and Equity, recognized Burwell as “an advocate of underrepresented communities, and for her work with the WRC [Women’s Resource Center] and the University of Colorado Student Union.” In 2003, she was named a CU “Equity & Excellence Award” recipient.

In 2006, Burwell served as a spokeswoman for 9to5, the "National Association of Working Women," advocating a raise to Colorado’s minimum wage. She is now employed by Sixth Sun Consulting, a Denver firm that specializes in diversity training, according to its web site. The firm has a motto of “Internal Revolution. Organization Evolution.” Specific services advertised include “anti-oppression consulting and training,” “Reiki Energy Work,” “Transformative Coaching,” and “Enneagram Instruction.”

When asked by FTS how someone so knowledgeable about race and gender-related issues could be tricked into signing the initiative, Burwell said she "didn't associate that [ballot] language with terminating any equal opportunity programs." Burwell believes programs specifically designed for women and minorities are desirable because "we're dealing with a lot of inequity in this society...that 'non-discrimination' clause would only work if we lived in an equal society."

According to CCRI's backers, its language would not abolish race-neutral outreach programs, and they maintain that programs promoting opportunity and access to state services would not be affected by Amendment 46's passage. Only those programs granting an advantage based on race, sex, or other immutable characteristics would be prohibited.

"Any equal opportunity or Affirmative Action program that doesn't include race or gender preferences will continue, as they have in all other states where similar initiatives have been passed by voters," said Jennifer Gratz, director of state initiatives for the American Civil Rights Coalition. ACRI has successfully pursued voter-backed initiatives to abolish race and gender preferences in California, Washington, and Michigan. In addition, former Gov. Jeb Bush's "One Florida" executive order had the same effect on state law, there.

Still, Burwell maintains that "eliminating race-preference programs is discriminatory because we people of color, women, etc., are not on an equal playing level with the people most privileged in society."

"We look forward to having a vivid dialogue this fall about the future of equality," Gratz added. "We can disagree about what's the best path for us to take, but that's a different issue than alleging fraud. She simply has no valid fraud claim."

Face The State contacted several people who worked with Burwell throughout her academic and professional career. According to Meg Rapp, who says she got to know Burwell well during their days as students at CU-Boulder, "[Burwell] regularly took up causes at CU without having a clear understanding of the issues surrounding them."

Rapp, a 2005 CU graduate, served as the vice president of the University of Colorado Student Union's legislative council while Burwell served as the director of the university's Student Outreach Retention Center for Equity. According to SORCE's Web site, Burwell was "the first programmer, drafted legislation which outlined the scope of SORCE, the path of its creation and direction, and requested seed money" in 2000, with the center "envisioned as a method of changing the campus climate by encompassing multiculturalism, acting as a centralized hub for all outreach and retention programs on campus, incorporating student driven initiatives, and embracing all underrepresented students."

According to Rapp, SORCE saw its student-fee funding temporarily withdrawn shortly thereafter because "they misused student fees for political purposes in clear violation of state law."

According to Rapp, who is now employed by a Denver architecture firm, Burwell regularly used the SORCE office to organize campaign meetings for students interested in running for office. Under state law, mandatory student fees cannot be used to support candidate campaigns. As FTS has previously reported, UCSU claims to be the nation's largest student government and boasts an annual budget of more than $31 million. "Based on things I saw her do as a student, I would not be surprised if she never even signed the petition," Rapp added.

Due to the sheer volume of petitions submitted by CCRI supporters and the fact that Coffman's staff, as mandated by state law, only evaluates a random sampling of signatures to determine whether an initiative's support is valid, FTS has been unable to confirm whether Burwell actually signed the petition as she claims.

While Burwell has thus far declined to file a formal fraud complaint with Coffman's staff, three other Colorado residents have. These complaints were recently transferred from Coffman's staff to Richard Walker in the state's Office of Administrative Courts. One of the cases has since been dismissed.