Posted on 12/10/2014 12:11:10 PM PST by Red Steel
Secretary of state alleges violations
The Colorado Secretary of State's Office alleges that Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall "violated state law in several ways" during the processing of ballots and the tallying of votes cast in the 2014 general election. Hall declined Friday to give a point-by-point response to those allegations, which included:
•"She systematically discriminated against Republican election judges, by excluding people nominated by the Republican Party, and even appointing people not registered to vote."
•"She prevented watchers from having a meaningful opportunity to observe and verify the signature review process, created an artificially cramped area for them to operate in, restricted watcher access to secondary signature review for most of the election period, unnecessarily barred watchers from the vote tabulation area, and targeted certain watchers for discriminatory treatment."
•"She appointed election staff members to monitor watchers, restrict their movements, and report on their activities. Indeed, during the election she treated one observer sent by the Secretary's office in the same manner."
•"She failed to verify signatures for military and overseas voters who submitted their ballots electronically."
Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall maintains that she broke no state laws in the way she handled the reception, processing and tallying of voters' 2014 general election ballots as well as the monitoring of those procedures.
This year, as in previous elections, "We've followed the law and treated everyone involved fairly," Hall said in a written statement and repeated in a Friday afternoon interview.
Democrat Hall disagreed with the assertions in a Thursday night report from Republican Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler's office that accused her of not running "an election that met Colorado's legal requirements."
Gessler stood by those accusations Friday, saying he did not think anyone had looked as closely into Boulder County's procedures as his staff did this year.
Gessler's office said in its official report that its investigations, "along with other observation, reveal that the Boulder clerk committed serious and systematic violations of Colorado state law.
"These violations involve election judge selection, signature verification procedures and watcher access," the report said.
Hall, however, said Friday that she and her Elections Division staff "followed what we were legally required to do" in conducting the election, processing the ballots cast by Boulder County voters, and providing information to a canvass board that voted 4-3 on Nov. 21 to refuse to certify the results.
Gessler said Friday that he's not planning any further investigations by his own office into alleged election-law violations by Hall and her staff. He also said he won't be referring it to the Colorado attorney general or the Boulder District Attorney's Office.
"I'm not pursuing a criminal investigation," Gessler said.
The Secretary of State's Office also announced in its 12-page Thursday night report that despite that board majority's non-certification vote, his office was accepting the Boulder County results as they pertained to the state and federal government offices and the state initiatives on the ballot.
Said Hall: "The bottom line is that the secretary of state accepted the results of the election for purposes of the statewide races and has responded to the concerns raised by the canvass board."
Hall declined Friday to make a point-by-point response to the Secretary of State's Office's allegations of her having violated the law.
"We're disappointed" in those accusations, Hall said, and "we'll be preparing a response" at some point.
She said that her focus for the time being, however, is completion of tasks related to "finalizing the election results."
That, Hall said, will include seeing whether any of the two Republicans and two American Constitution Party members on the canvass board are willing to reconsider their rejection of the election results as they apply to Boulder County government posts and a variety of county, municipal and special district questions that were on the ballot.
Hall and two county Democratic Party appointees to the canvass board were in the minority in last month's 4-3 vote against certification, and it would only take one of the four other board members to switch, something Hall suggested they might be willing to consider in light of the secretary of state's decision that the tallies for federal and state posts met statutory requirements.
While the Secretary of State's Office accepted the Boulder County results in federal and state contests, it maintains it doesn't have the legal authority to overrule the canvass board's refusal to certify the local items on those ballots.
Boulder County Republican Party chairwoman Ellyn Hilliard said Friday that no one in her GOP organization is accusing Hall "of doing something illegally," but that some of the clerk's practices and procedures have posed problems "with transparency, and that makes people suspicious."
Hilliard said she's planning a luncheon meeting with deputy county clerk Molly Tayer, the head of the office's Elections Division, to talk about how procedures for judging, watching and canvassing elections might be improved.
County Republicans "are going to try to be constructive and offer solutions" to the problems and concerns that arose this year, Hilliard said.
Boulder County Democratic Party chairman Dan Gould said in an emailed Friday statement: "I was surprised by the inaccuracies and obvious political tone" of the report from the Secretary of State's Office.
"Those who wrote it have a clear agenda to attack the increased access to voting that the state has engaged in over the past three years," Gould said. "The processes used in Boulder County are similar to those used in many of the largest counties in the state, and some of the issues raised are clearly outside the scope of the canvass board."
But Mary Eberle and Jim Remmert, the two American Constitution Party canvass board members who voted, along with the board's two Republicans, against accepting Boulder County's voting results, said in their own Friday statement: "There was absolutely nothing political or partisan about our refusal to certify the election.
"We are only concerned with the integrity of the election process itself, and our non-certification reflects a lack of that confidence to which all voters are entitled," Eberle and Remmert wrote.
Marty Neilson, a former county GOP chairwoman who was an election judge as well as a Republican member of the general election canvass board, said Friday that she thought the secretary of state's report was "thorough" and "identified issues we faced in Boulder County" as judges, watchers and canvass board members.
"All of us want a valid and transparent and true election," Neilson said.
Dick Murphy, the canvass board's other Republican member, was not available for comment Friday but said in an interview earlier this week that the state law setting forth canvass board procedures and responsibilities "is out of date" and needs to be updated to reflect all-mail-ballot and same-day-voter-registration practices.
Gessler contended Friday that he had no partisan motive in blasting Hall for her office's procedures. He said county clerks from both parties have shown they can reach out to other parties to settle disputes over processing ballots, monitoring those processes and canvassing the results.
Gessler said Hall, who's had canvass board majorities refuse to certify the results of the 2012 general election and this year's primary election as well as last month's general election, is the only Colorado county clerk "who's been unable to work with her canvass board."
Said Gessler: "Everyone except Hillary Hall does a good job."
When told of those comments, Hall said: "I'm not going to go into that today."
Gessler's Thursday night report said that "in the future, the Secretary of State's Office will work with the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder to design and implement processes that adhere to state law, and build trust and confidence in the integrity of Colorado elections."
Come January, Republican Wayne Williams will become secretary of state after winning last month's election.
Hall won re-election last month to another four-year term as Boulder County clerk.
"We look forward to working with the new secretary in 2015 so that we can continue our tradition of fair and unbiased elections in Boulder County," Hall said Friday.
Then what's the point?
Gessler is term limited and leaves office in January. I guess not enough time.
Heck, once one sees anything associated with “Boulder”, one can rest assured that the honesty, integrity, and intellect displayed will be equal to that of Dorkbama.
‘Nuff said.
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
Can’t Boulder County voters sue these bums?
She’s a LIB/DIM. She is a chronic and unrepentant liar. Liars lie...that is what they do. Shouldn’t this criminal be in prison? She and her family should be shunned.
Yeah I suppose they could sue. I wonder if the next SoS Wayne Williams will do something about it.
If she was not cheating, why would she do these things. Now no one can say if there was cheating or not. Sure looks suspicious though.
I was not allowed to assist my elderly mother in the voting booth, which as it turns out in Minnesota, is a felony.
This is a blessing and a curse. If the punishment is too severe, no one wants the old lady volunteers to sit in prison, so they don’t prosecute.
However, there should be a sanction.
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