Colorado is working on multiple fronts to make campaigning and voting more difficult. I spoke early this week about efforts at unilateral voter ID moves in El Paso County here. Well, here is the second shoe to drop.
The Colorado Sect of State (Ken Gordon lost that race) is rolling out a new voter information data base. And it is a doozy - Colorado Springs Gazette article here - that changes the playing field.
More below:
The state is rolling out this pilot data base in seven counties as of early last month. The article doesn't tell the whole story.
The current system provides the voter's name, their voting record in the primary and the general election. The data is very nicely extractable with the address and phone number into existing voter identification software run by the parties. In essence, the state data base is the foundation for voter targeting in Colorado.
So what is the new system? Well first:
Colorado election officials expect to have a statewide voter registration database running in time for the presidential election in 2008, officials said Friday.
That's at least two years later than the deadline set in federal law, a delay that has led to closer oversight from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The database is one requirement in the Help America Vote Act of 2002, a federal law passed in the wake of votecounting chaos in other states that accompanied the 2000 presidential election. The act imposes many requirements on local election officials aimed at ensuring everyone gets the chance to vote. A statewide database of voters would help prevent voter fraud, advocates say
Colorado Springs Gazette
Please note, the last voter database to roll out in Denver caused multi-hour delays in the 2006 election and is believed to cause significant voter suppression.
Oh, yeah:
The database is one requirement in the Help America Vote Act of 2002, a federal law passed in the wake of votecounting chaos in other states that accompanied the 2000 presidential election. The act imposes many requirements on local election officials aimed at ensuring everyone gets the chance to vote. A statewide database of voters would help prevent voter fraud, advocates say.
We remember this law - the basis for all the new voter ID requirements - it sure is helping it make it easier for people to vote.
What the process? After all, how this came to be is probably a good indication of how it will work, right?
Colorado awarded a $12.5 million contract to Portland-based Saber Corp. to build the database. The computer program includes many features beyond a simple list of voters, such as the capability of accessing state prison inmate lists to ensure no one serving a criminal sentence is allowed to cast a ballot.
...
The state government had hired Accenture, a Bermuda-based company, under a $10 million contract to construct the database in 2004. Former Colorado Secretary of State Gigi Dennis fired the company in late 2005 because it was unable to produce the product on time. The state had spent $2 million of the contract with Accenture, an amount the government recovered after the company was fired, Secretary of State spokesman Jonathan Tee said Friday.
And what did we get for this?
John Morris, the El Paso County Democratic Party Chair, has indicated that, "The system will give us name and party registration. No voting history comes along. The addresses are formatted and controlled so that they can not be extracted for creation of mailing lists."
Please note that the content of the data base and the structure was not discussed with the people who use it prior to the "pilot" being released.
In other words, the new data base nullifies all of the money spent to date on Voter Identification software by the Colorado Democratic Party and removes the ability to target voters in mailings or walk lists. You can't even confirm if the voter at a house in 2006 is the same voter today without doing it manually.
There is need for guidance on what can and can not be required of the state to provide this data. Believe me, if any Presidential campaign believes they will be able to generate viable walk and phone lists from this data base for Colorado Springs (about 11% of Colorado's population and the reddest part of the state), please think again. Anyone who can help the El Paso County Democratic Party find legal resources to fight this action and the voter suppression actions, please contact the El Paso County Democratic Party.