In this morning's Denver Post, Sara Burnett highlights some worrying issues with election readiness in County Clerk and Recorder offices as we're only 77 days out from the election.
There's someone to blame but Burnett doesn't mention it in her article.
According to Democrat Pueblo Clerk and Recorder Gilbert Ortiz's website, he is "President Elect of the Colorado County Clerks Association, and Chair of the CCCA Education Committee whose responsibility it is to train newly elected County Clerks statewide."
Let's see what his leadership atop groups responsible for training county clerks has wrought. Per Burnett:
Reports of traceable ballots, voting irregularities and a county clerk who was "completely unprepared" for the June primary are prompting concerns about Colorado's readiness as Election Day draws near in a presidential battleground state.
…Gessler's office also has sent the former deputy director of elections for Arapahoe County to run the November election in Teller County. The intervention came after staff from Gessler's office determined Clerk Judith "J.J." Jamison "failed to plan for and document the most remedial aspects of elections" and wasn't prepared to handle this fall's contest. Jamison's own Republican county party has asked her to step down from her job or face a recall vote.
The state also recently sent two staff members to Chaffee County to investigate an abnormally large number of primary ballots that were filled out in two colors of ink — a possible sign that someone added votes in races that were left blank. As part of the investigation, the staff took five days' worth of video recordings from surveillance cameras that were running in the areas where ballots were processed and stored, Clerk Joyce Reno said.
This is not a partisan thing — there have been serious issues in Teller County, run by a Republican and Chaffee County, run by a Democrat. Then there was the epic meltdown in Saguache County Clerk's office, run by a Democrat.
Flashback to a January Sara Burnett article:
Saguache County Clerk and Recorder Melinda Myers, under fire for a 2010 election that was bungled so badly it prompted a grand jury investigation, was recalled by voters yesterday.
The unofficial tally showed 68 percent voted to recall Myers, a Democrat.
No, this isn't a partisan thing. This is a leadership thing, or rather a case of a lack of leadership.
Gilbert Ortiz, the same one that Colorado Pols sycophantically raved had been "lionized" by MSNBC, has been an unbelievable embarrassment. Between making up non-existent turnout numbers for inactive voters in 2011 to double mailing ballots to voters in 2012, Ortiz has proven he can't handle his job.
No wonder there are serious concerns about election readiness, when the person in charge of training election officials is Gilbert Ortiz.
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