Bill would open way for paper ballots

DENVER - A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers will introduce a bill today that would give voters the option of using paper ballots in the November election.

Senate and House leaders announced the plan Tuesday, saying the joint proposal is intended to end the confusion Secretary of State Mike Coffman caused when he decided in December that electronic voting machines in 53 of Colorado’s 64 counties were inadequate.

Under the bill, voters would be given paper ballots to mark by hand when they enter a polling place. They would still have the option of voting early by mail or at polling places

Reverting to a low-tech approach is the easiest way to assure voters their vote will be counted, said Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver.

“We feel that at this point we’d like to use paper as much as possible,” he said.

Optical scanners that read hand-marked ballots would be used extensively to tabulate votes. Machines that allow voters to input their vote directly into a computer would be available at each polling place for voters who cannot use paper ballots because of a disability or who choose not to.

The bill’s sponsors think those machines will be ready well before the Aug. 12 primary election. The Secretary of State’s Office has recertified the direct input machines, and Gordon said he expects the optical scanners will be recertified in the next two weeks.

“This is the most foolproof system,” said Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs.

The bill would set aside $3.5 million to help counties pay for the ballots and scanners the new system requires. Clerks and recorders have complained their counties would be responsible for the cost of buying new equipment just a few years after they bought machines they thought brought them into compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act.

El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink said the bill would have little effect on the county. El Paso and Teller counties use equipment from Premier Election Solutions, which was not decertified in Colorado. Machines made by that company, formerly named Diebold, have been decertified in California, but Balink said those were different models and used different software.

Balink called the bill well-intentioned, but he said he disliked some of its minor provisions.

The bill would require counties to pay the return postage for mail-in ballots and to print more ballots than in past years, increasing costs, Balink said.

Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, and Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, are sponsoring the bill in the House, and Gordon said the sponsors worked with the governor and secretary of state when writing the bill.