Face the State

Face The State Staff Report

For the second time in as many days, opponents of a citizen-led civil rights initiative are facing allegations that they manufactured voter fraud allegations. The latest dust up: A Democrat state legislative aide who had claimed to be a victim of voter fraud saw her complaint dismissed after state officials learned that she was not a registered voter.

On February 26, Chloe Johnson filed a complaint with Secretary of State Mike Coffman's office alleging that she was tricked into supporting Amendment 46, also known as the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot effort designed to end race and gender preferences in government hiring, education, and contracting. The complaint was formally dismissed by the state's Office of Administrative Courts because Johnson never registered to vote.

“I wasn’t a registered elector at the time, so they dismissed my case,” said Johnson. “I thought I was registered and that I registered last year when I turned 18.” More than six weeks after lodging her complaint, Johnson is still not a registered voter, though she claims to be in the process of registering. Voters can obtain voter registration forms and verify their registration status online through the Secretary of State's Web site.

Under Colorado law you must be a registered voter in order to sign a petition. According to Rich Coolidge, Coffman's spokesman, "If you know you aren't registered, then you have perjured yourself by signing a petition."

Johnson had sought to have her name removed from a petition supporting Amendment 46 on the grounds that she was misled by the petitioner. Johnson claims that she signed the petition because she believes in “preventing discrimination anywhere," but that after signing it and during the course of her legislative internship with Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, she became outraged when she learned that the initiative would not "end discrimination," but was "in fact a petition for anti-affirmative action." Face The State attempted to contact Carroll, who did not return calls for comment Monday.

Upset by this revelation, Johnson says she called the office of Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, and requested that her name be removed from the petition. She was instructed to contact Coffman's office about the matter, which she did, leading her to subsequently file a complaint.

The initiative specifically reads: "The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any group or individual on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public contracting, or public education."

In addition to interning for a state legislator, Johnson is a political science major at the University of Colorado at Denver. When asked how she was confused by the petitions intent despite her background, Johnson replied, “There was nothing in the wording that said anything about ending affirmative action; it just talked about ending discrimination.”

The dismissal of Johnson's complaint comes on the heels of a Face The State investigation made public Monday revealing that CCRI backers are now questioning the validity of similar allegations made by another Colorado woman, Dara Burwell. While Burwell had also complained that she was tricked into signing on in support of the initiative, the fact that she works as a professional diversity trainer raised eyebrows with her political foes. While Burwell made her allegations at an April 1 press conference, she has not yet filed an official complaint with Coffman's office.

To Ward Connerly, a former University of California Regent who is helping Colorado residents spearhead Amendment 46, the back-to-back allegations are telling. "We have suspected all along that these claims of fraud and deception are manufactured and orchestrated by our opponents and this confirms it," he told Face The State.

Connerly maintains that CCRI will not end affirmative action programs, but only ban the use of race or gender preferences for such programs. In other states where Connerly has successfully passed measures with the same language, including California, Washington, and Michigan, he maintains that race and gender neutral equal opportunity programs have survived and flourished.

While Johnson's complaint was dismissed and Burwell's was never filed, two other complaints are still being investigated by the Office of Administrative Courts. Candace Frie and Tracy Sear also allege deception by CCRI signature gatherers.

Frie originally tried to file a formal complaint over e-mail, but hit a roadblock and was instructed by Coffman's staff that she needed to send in a signed copy. In her complaint, Frie says that she signed the petition believing it would “help end discrimination against all people,” basing her assumption in part on the petitioner being a "person of color."

Sear complained that petitioners were not wearing the proper identification required by Colorado statute and that they tried to mislead her about information regarding the purpose of the initiative. Unlike Johnson and Frie, Sear does not maintain that she actually signed the petition.

According to Julie Postlethwait, the Department of Personnel and Administration's public information officer, declined to comment in detail, but did say, "As to the [case] that was dismissed, it is pretty clear cut and there isn’t anything to comment on as involvement in this matter was very limited.”