Colorado Secretary of State Attacks Voting Rights; Promotes Corporate Agenda
Voting rights advocates are waging an on-line campaign to hold CO Secretary of State Scott Gessler accountable for his actions. (Image courtesy of gesslerwatch.com)
The coordinated national attack on voting rights sponsored by corporations like Koch Industries through groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has found an ally in the State of Colorado. Secretary of State Scott Gessler has made it his mission to advance an agenda that disenfranchises ordinary voters while giving corporate interests a bigger stake in campaign funding in the Rocky Mountain State. He has openly acknowledged that he believes his function is to “further the conservative agenda” through the policies and rules issued by the Secretary of State’s office. This is a markedly different vision from most elections officials, who view it as their mission to conduct fair and free elections to promote a healthy democracy.
Gessler has worked toward his goal by loosening campaign finance rules for corporations and tightening the rules for ordinary voters trying to exercise their constitutional rights. He has pursued this anti-working family agenda while still trying to moonlight at a law firm that advises the Colorado Republican Party and shadowy, right-wing political front groups working to elect anti-worker politicians. Progressive groups have launched a website to track and expose Gessler’s over-the-top partisanship at http://gesslerwatch.com/.
Gessler’s assertions in the media have been so provocative that Congress last year asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate his office, following his dubious assertions that as many as 11,805 undocumented residents were illegally registered to vote in Colorado and more than 4,000 had voted in the 2010 elections. Gessler never provided adequate evidence for this or other assertions that were primarily intended to increase doubt among the voters in the security of what is a model national voting system.
Gessler later filed suit against several Colorado counties to keep them from sending ballots (in an all-mail election last year) to eligible voters who missed the 2010 election. He argued that anyone who missed the last election, including active-duty military personnel who were defending our country abroad during 2010, should be declared inactive and not receive a ballot.
Just this week, Gessler is putting in place rules that open the doors to unlimited, unregulated, unreported corporate money in Colorado politics. One loophole in the new rules could allow Koch Industries or the Coors Corporation to give millions to a county party committee which could then turn the cash over to the state party to evade long-standing contribution limits. Gesler’s rules would also allow corporations like Walmart to spend up to 30% of their annual revenue to support anti-worker ballot measures without ever filing a report with state elections officials.
Our allies in this fight for voters’ rights filed a ballot initiative last week that would take the role of administering elections away from Gessler’s highly partisan Secretary of State’s office and put it in the hands of a non-partisan election administrator. AFSCME members in Colorado will continue these and other efforts to hold Gessler accountable and protect voters’ rights for the critical 2012 elections.
*Note: I did not write this, mearly copied it for dissemation of information to members of Local 1335. This post was sent out on the AFSCME Battleground Bulliten 3-28-2012
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