El Paso County, CO – The El Paso County voter guide was sabotaged by supporters of Ballot Measure 4A who submitted statements opposing the measure.
While this is legal, many consider it dirty politics. Many more voters will have no idea a potentially misleading statement is printed in their official voter guide.
Derek Araje, an opponent of 4A, had this to say.
“The voter guide is what people read to help them decide what to vote on,” Derek Araje, who plans to vote “no” on 4A said.
From: Supporters of ballot issue allowed to write opposing argument in voter guide; Is this legal?, by Eric Ross
Araje was upset when he found out his statement in opposition of building a new elementary school under 4A was shortened and replaced with summaries written by opposing members.
Araje believes the con statements, written by members of “Strong D38 Community,” intend to suppress the voice of voters who actually oppose the bond issue. He also believes there is a conflict of interest with the designated election official responsible for summarizing and submitting arguments “for” and “against” 4A.
Kathy Nameika, the designated election official, also holds positions within Lewis Palmer School District 38. She is the executive secretary to the assistant superintendent and Board of Education. With such a close connection to the district benefitting from the bond issue, questions about ballot language integrity are not surprising.
The Jefferson County voter guide is facing a similar problem. Supporters of the Jefferson County Ballot Issue 1A tax hike also wrote part of the opposing statement printed in the Jefferson County voter guide.
These actions jeopardize the integrity of voter guides and elections in Colorado and risk misleading voters.
Is it time for the law to change regarding arguments submitted for voter guides in Colorado? Is the current law being abused?
Let us know what you think.
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Adams, Jefferson and now El Paso County election officials are failing to perform adequately to maintain job positions responsible for valid ballot measures required by law.
In this unfortunate context, relevant civil and/or criminal liability issues demand immediate attention, close examination and plausibly exhaustive investigation in order that remedial measures be initiated forthwith post haste.
Well in the 2004 election, people complained about the con statements summarized by then El Paso County Clerk Bob Balink. He was sued. The suit, Gresh v Balink, was appealed. The appeal failed. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/co-court-of-appeals/1083859.html
The finding talked about “significant freedom of speech concerns” with the plaintiff’s position. They punt the question to the General Assembly. That means that state representatives and senators have the power to make the necessary changes to Colorado Revised Statutes 1-7-901 (http://bit.ly/crs-1-7-901). And yet the haven’t done so in the 15 years since that election nor in the time since TABOR was enacted in the early 90s.
I would support a change that allowed ONE registered agent of the PRO issue committee to make the PRO statement. And ONE registered agent of the CON issue committee to make the CON statement. So long as those statements were fact-checked.
But that’s NOT how the law works today and as of today there is NO registered CON issue committee. Yet anonymous websites and signs abound in our community which skirt the campaign regulations by claiming to keep spending under a certain cap. As Derek Araje, mentioned in your article recently commented: “Learn the rules and the laws and stop saying these things.” Change the rules and laws or live with them.
Legality and loopholes don’t necessarily make things moral or right, Jackie. Most of us learned as kids that just because you “can” do something doesn’t mean you “should”.
And a few anonymous websites and signs don’t at all equate to misleading voters in voter guides that have far greater impact when voters are sitting at their tables completing their ballots. Plus that comment is a red herring that distracts attention from the far greater voter guide issue.
Most voters are hopeless ignorant and they fail to recognize that the far majority of everyone working within government are already corrupted compromised and do not respect the Constitution. The government is far too large. Americans pay more than half of everything they earn to taxation already. The system of justice is beyond broken and there is no longer equal justice under the law. Fire everyone, clear the bench, downsize everything. The vote on the ballot does not matter. The vote in your wallet is the only thing that counts. Audit the fed. KHNC 1360. Let’s test ‘free speech’ on this website… The fact you can’t even see the persons political party on the ballot, the fact there is not a write in line mandatory for every single vote related person, as well as a none of the above option, that should tell you everything you need to know about how ‘legitimate’ current vote processes are.
For every new law, 3 should be removed. You should not be surprised why previous activities are lost in the fog of the current day. Nobody can humanly even learn all of the laws and taxation codes on the books, it’s a hundred thousand libraries worth. These people turn over so regularly and voters have no clue who they are voting for anyways. Voter guides are hopelessly inadequate. Nobody even cares about constitutional compliance anymore.
Requesting a law that when a voter receives more than 1 single political mailer and 1 political phone call by a person group or charity, that be recognized as meeting the legal definition of harassment in Colorado. I’ve got my call blocker ready to add another 300 numbers and everything mailer related goes straight into the trash can. Requesting that anything politically orientated not be an allowable tax write off. Requesting every vote be audited for citizenship compliance, prosecute those whom vote illegally without exception. How about a clean sweep platform.
Yes it is time, a vote is not a vote if you cheat to get the results you want!May as well have a dictatorship if you deprive people of all the information!!!!!!!!
At the very least, it is unethical and fraudulent for Jackie Burhans and James Howald, who are leaders of the Strong D-38 Community, to submit letters for positions that are the exact opposite of their true viewpoints. In essence, based on their unethical actions, voters in Monument are not seeing the real legitimate positions against this bond. And that seems to be the exact opposite of what a voter guide is intended for in the first place.
Where is the none of the above option?
And that’s just the guide. Who’s counting the votes? Who’s auditing the count? Who’s auditing the auditors? Who’s managing the machines? Who owns the machines? Why do some counties issue final vote figures based on only samplings? Why did I get a notice of my presidential vote finally being counted, over a week after the last presidential election? Why don’t we have publicly accessible cctv live feed cameras installed at every single voting location and every single count room and every single drop box in the state? What’s all the secrecy for?
The popular group, Judicial Watch now publishes a monthly mailer magazine for anyone whom donates to their organization. Get on that mailing list. They have used foia requests to identify and then force states to purge literally millions of unauthorized, deceased, and redundant voter records in state after state over the past year or so. Vote fraud is real, to the tune of tens of millions if not more every single year. They’re still unpacking the massive size of it. Get involved and be aware of their discovery efforts. Then cleverly leave your monthly mag copy in some random waiting room. You don’t find journalism like that in the Sunday post.