Secretary of State Scott Gessler today wrote a letter to Senate President Brandon Shaffer asking him to quit delaying an important election night reporting bill and bring it up for a vote. If Colorado doesn't want to be a national embarrassment on election night, Gessler says Shaffer needs to give the bill
"prompt and fair consideration."
You can read the letter here.
The bill in question is SB135, which would set up a statewide election night reporting system. With Colorado likely to be one of the most watched states in the nation for the Presidential election, it is essential to have statewide results in a timely manner, centrally located. As Gessler notes in the letter, Colorado is one of only nine states in the nation without a statewide election night reporting system.
Delaying passage of the bill, rather than dealing with it now, could make it impossible to set up the system in time for November. The Secretary of State's office needs the ability to test the system out on June 26 during the primary, so that they can ensure everything is running smoothly when the nation's eyes are fixed towards Colorado's results on November 6.
But Senate Democrats have been sitting on the bill since it was introduced on January 31, most likely in retribution for Gessler opposing some of their own pet project election bills.
Colorado Democrats have already embarrassed themselves enough when they announced an effort to recall Gessler, and then did nothing, proving their threats idle.
Do they really want to embarrass Colorado in front of the whole country on election night, just to spite Gessler?