In an election year when Democrats need to make Coloradans forget about their progressive crusade in 2013 and burnish their bipartisan credentials, you’d think the offer made today by state Senator Kevin Grantham would be a no-brainer. Then again, we can’t rule out that Democrats don’t have their hearts set on going down in flames come November.
Encouraged by how well a bipartisan commission created commonsense solutions to problems arising from the floods that struck Colorado last year, Grantham and fellow Republicans proposed creating a bipartisan commission to examine the best solutions in correcting the many flaws in last year’s voting reform bill. This bill unleashed so many unintended consequences that even The Denver Post has attacked aspects of it.
Yet, despite this very vocal declaration, Democrats feel the best solution to last year’s problems is to double down by passing a longer bill (130 pages to 113) in an even faster manner (HB14-1164 passed the house in just over a week since it was introduced).
The Post was emphatic when it called this “a terrible way to legislate.”
Contrary to HB14-1164, Republicans propose putting a two-year moratorium on last year’s election bill, allowing a newly created bipartisan commission the time and means necessary to review the legislation and get input from outside sources. As The Post wrote in its editorial:
Although it may come as a surprise to some at the Capitol, those who draft and sponsor legislation are not the sole authorities on policy. Sometimes members of the public, or political colleagues, offer useful insights on a proposal — noticing unintended flaws, for example. But that won’t happen if they don’t have time to reflect on it. [the Peak emphasis]
A bipartisan commission that gives members of the public two years to weigh in on reforms to improve the voting system? Surely Democrats aren’t as electorally suicidal as to reject this olive branch put forth by Republicans, to eschew commonsense legislating, and to thumb their noses at a recommendation by The Denver Post Editorial Board….
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