Election watchdog could face charges

Officials contend Al Kolwicz hindered election test

By Ryan Morgan, Camera Staff Writer
August 7, 2004

An election watchdog could face criminal charges after a confrontation with Boulder County election officials this week.

Boulder County sheriff's deputies are investigating an incident that occurred when Al Kolwicz, a longtime critic of election practices across the state, showed up to observe a test at the county's election headquarters on Thursday.

Election officials have told police that Kolwicz's actions during that test could be construed as hindering an election, sheriff's Capt. Dennis Hopper said.

Hopper didn't specify which law Kolwicz might have broken, but a Colorado statute defines "interference with an election official" as a misdemeanor.

Kolwicz was upset when he learned he could be cited.

"I think this is strictly harassment, and has nothing to do with the law," he said.

The dispute boils down to the nature of the test conducted Thursday.

State law requires counties to perform "logic and accuracy" tests on their voting equipment. This week was the first time such a test has been performed on the county's new electronic voting machines, which were purchased earlier this year.

Election officials say the scope of a logic and accuracy test is limited: It's meant to determine whether voting equipment accurately tallies votes and whether it can catch over-voting (when a voter votes for more than one candidate in the same race) and under-voting (when a voter doesn't clearly mark his or her choice).

The ballots Kolwicz filled in went beyond under-voting and over-voting. In what he said was an attempt to replicate real conditions, he circled his answers rather than filling them in. He attached kitchen-table waste to another ballot (to simulate a voter who fills in a mail-in ballot while eating), and he used a pen to cross out a bar code that the equipment uses to keep track of the ballots.

Kolwicz said the test that election officials requested is too limited, and too unlikely to catch the issues that arise when real voters mark their ballots.

"The voter is supposed to fill in a square next to the candidate of their choice. Voters don't always do that," Kolwicz said. "They'll put an 'X' through the square instead of filling it in, or they'll circle a square. The clerk wants us to produce tests that only fill in the square perfectly. The fact that we had done circles and 'X's' was very upsetting to the clerk."

Kolwicz was referring to Linda Salas, the county clerk and recorder, who asked Kolwicz to leave the building Wednesday after seeing the ballots he brought in.

While election officials declined to comment directly, Capt. Hopper said they thought that Kolwicz, by going so far outside the scope of the test, illegally hampered the election.

Lisa Doran, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Secretary of State's Office, said her office adheres to the more limited definition of a logic and accuracy test but will not take a position on whether Kolwicz should be prosecuted.

Sheila Horton, another election watchdog who knows Kolwicz, said county officials will look like they have something to hide if they charge him.

"This is nothing more than an attempt to discredit the observers and keep people from asking the questions," she said.