Petition signatures delivered to Secretary of State's office Friday as possible federal investigation looms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, September 30th, 2011
CONTACT: Alan Franklin, Online Director at alan@progressnowcolorado.org
 Petitions delivered to Scott Gessler's office today. |
DENVER: Amid fresh controversy over the denial of mail ballots to deployed soldiers overseas and a possible U.S. Justice Department investigation looming over Colorado's mail ballot election practices, ProgressNow Colorado, the state's largest online progressive advocacy organization, delivered thousands of petition signatures today demanding that Secretary of State Scott Gessler abandon his attempts to suppress the vote for partisan gain.
"This is a fat stack of outrage over Scott Gessler's brazen attack on the voting rights of tens of thousands of Denver residents--and now deployed American soldiers from Pueblo," said ProgressNow Colorado Online Director Alan Franklin, holding a printed stack of over 3,600 comments from ProgressNow Colorado members condemning Gessler's actions. "This wasn't a hard call for our members: the idea that a Secretary of State would actively work to prevent people from voting is about as indefensible as it gets."
Since ProgressNow Colorado began its campaign a week ago, two members of the congressional Elections Subcommittee have requested a Department of Justice investigation into Gessler's lawsuit against Denver to stop the mailing of ballots to voters marked "inactive-failed to vote." Yesterday, Gessler's office insisted that the Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert Ortiz not mail ballots to dozens of deployed soldiers marked "inactive" on voter rolls: simply meaning they missed the 2010 elections for whatever reason.
"Missing one election should never create barriers to voting again in the future," said Franklin. "It's terribly misguided of Gessler to use the expiration of a law guaranteeing these ballots be sent as an excuse to force counties not to send them. Nothing in the law says that counties can't send ballots to voters marked 'inactive' simply for not voting last year, that's the highly questionable interpretation Gessler is trying to force on our communities. That won't stand up in court--and if it does? Time for a higher court then."
"Enough is enough," said Franklin. "By the thousands, progressives in Colorado are not buying Gessler's excuses. It's time for Gessler to stop his shameless attempts to suppress the vote for partisan gain."
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